


A Certain Scientific Clone

by BorrowingZe



Category: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun | A Certain Scientific Railgun, Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Dark, Gen, Misaka Sister Self Insert, Mystery, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22850287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorrowingZe/pseuds/BorrowingZe
Summary: Waking up as a clone of a super powerful Esper isn't something that happens to you every day. But I might as well make the most of it as long as I can.
Relationships: Kamijou Touma & Original Character(s), Misaka Mikoto & Original Character(s), Misaka Mikoto & Shirai Kuroko & Saten Ruiko & Uiharu Kazari, Saten Ruiko & Original Character(s), Shirai Kuroko & Original Character(s), Uiharu Kazari & Original Character(s), Yomikawa Aiho & Original Character(s)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

When I woke up, the one thing I thought I knew for sure was that I was dead.

I didn't remember how, or what had killed me, or even the day of my death overall. But for some reason, I was certain: I had died.

At the time, if someone had asked me how I would describe death, I would describe it like this: feeling like you're floating deep in the ocean, with no need to breathe and your eyes fully closed. You couldn't feel anything else except your thoughts. Essentially, it was like a sensory deprivation tank, but worse, because you would know you couldn't exit it at any time you pleased.

Then the fluid started to drain away. I don't really remember what I was thinking at the time to be totally honest, but it was probably something along the lines of 'Oh god what the hell is happening.'

Yeah, I'm not the most eloquent person.

Still, I couldn't really stop myself from worrying. What was going to happen after this fluid drained away? Would I face a judge of the dead or something? 'God, I hoped they won't judge me too badly.'

Finally the fluid drained, and I heard a hissing sound. I could feel light on the back of my eyelids. My body felt different and weird, but not wrong - just different.

I felt myself fall forward, and a hand caught me, holding me by an arm; steadying myself, I stood up. I heard a noise.

It sounded like someone speaking a foreign language - no, it was someone speaking a foreign language; Japanese, as a matter of fact. The voice was soft, bright, and feminine. Unfortunately, I hadn't brushed up on my Japanese for a while, so I couldn't exactly understand whatever the person whose voice it was was saying very well. I did hear something of a questioning tone in their voice though.

An older, but no less bright, feminine voice responded in the same language. This voice was filled with desperate excitement. I caught a few words, however, that made me freeze.

'Misaka.' 'Reberu 5.' 'Turi Daiaguramu.'

Dreading what I was about to see, I opened my eyes. For a second the brightness was almost blinding, but I managed to adjust.

Standing in front of me were two scientists dressed in lab coats wearing glasses, one younger and one older. We were in a futuristic laboratory.

From the corner of my eye, I could see brown hair cascading down my head. I turned around.

Staring at me was a tube from the series 'A Certain Scientific Railgun.' A tube which I knew clones of Mikoto Misaka, the series' protagonist, were produced in.

I had come out of that tube.

That meant that I was… I was now a clone. Of Mikoto Misaka.

I'm honestly not too surprised that I fainted right then and there.

\----

When I slowly came to, I felt weird. My former wakefulness, my certainty of my death and my finding out that I was now a clone of a fictional character felt fuzzy and unreal - like a dream. With no memory of my death or the day of it, my brain reached the logical conclusion of it being a dream.

"That was an odd dream," I murmured to myself. For some reason though, my voice sounded different - my words, too. I chalked it up to tiredness, though.

I yawned, stretching my oddly thin arms out. My eyes opened, then squinted shut. The light on the roof was blindingly bright-

Wait a minute. There is no light on my roof.

My eyes were wide open now. I sat up, instantly seeing the sanitary white of the wall in front of me. "This isn't my room-"

I slapped my hand over my mouth in shock, not from just one but two things.

First, my voice was very much different.

Second, I was speaking in Japanese.

I looked down at my body. It looked like I was dressed in some sort of white hospital gown or something - just great.

Then, hearing a door swing open, I turned my head to face it. One of the scientists from before, an older woman with a hairstyle I didn't know the name of, walked in, a smile on her face, her shoes clacking on the floor over the light buzzing.

"So the clone is awake," she said, a slight smile on her face. She crossed her arms, her eyes tracing up and down my body.. "Amazing... imagine, a newborn clone having such a developed brain. It must be one of those anomalies that you hear of occasionally. We even needed to use a modified Testament program for her - she already has emotions and knowledge of the world to a certain extent. What a remarkable specimen..."

I felt a pit settle into the depths of my stomach, and reality felt like it was unraveling. I could hear the dull buzzing from the light in the silence. This woman didn't see me as a human. She saw me as a thing - a tool, only to dispose of when necessary.

"Ah, but anyway," the woman said, actually looking at me, with a stare that showed the full disregard of one who thought of clones like that, "do you know your name?"

I blinked. "My… my name?" I asked, the surreality of this situation compounded by my voice. I flinched at its difference, and put a hand on the bed to steady myself as I stared up at her.

"I'll take that as a no," the scientist said, a slight frown on her face. "Shoddy programming... The Testament program was supposed to supply her with that," she muttered, and started pacing back and forth, walking in front of me and turning around every third step or so. "Although your serial number is 9984, you have been designated as Misaka BEST." She walked off towards a table in the corner of the room that I couldn't see the top of, touching something, then turned around and started to walk back. "This is because according to the Board of Directors, you are the best case scenario when it comes to Project Radio Noise." She stopped, once again dead center in front of me. All signs of her frustration gone, she smiled. "That is to say, a clone with the potential to become a Level 5 Esper."

A cold feeling settled in my gut. I could feel my breath start to quicken.

"As such, you will not be a part of the Level Six Shift project - unfortunate as that is." She muttered the last part, her eyes narrowing and her teeth clenching, although barely visibly. The tension was gone an instant later; so quickly I thought I'd imagined it, in fact, and once again a smile was plastered on her face. "Instead, we will be creating one additional clone to take part in it. The modified Testament program that prodigy made should have given you knowledge about said experiment. Hopefully it succeeded in that, at least?"

I nodded, putting my other hand on the bed now. The world was spinning.

"Good. At least that part wasn't a failure." She snorted. "Unlike the other subjects of Project Radio Noise, you are to be enrolled in a public school and put through the Power Curriculum Program. As of now, you're a Level 3, but as the Board of Directors have said that you have the ability to become a Level 5, they have decided that this is the best course of action - even though one's level can be increased in laboratory conditions regardless." There was a note of bitterness in her voice, then she shook her head. "Regardless, it's not up to me what to do with you, so you'll be enrolled in a school and your ability's level will be increased that way. Is that understood, Misaka BEST?"

"Yeah," I said, my voice hollow, shoulders slumping and eyes downcast.

I heard her gasp. "Ah, a clone with true emotions… how truly magnificent," she breathed.

I couldn't stop myself from shuddering. This woman… I didn't like her, not one bit. Although, one thing stood out to me, from both my memories and a weird feeling of… knowledge.

I took a few deep breaths, putting my hands on my legs, and looked her in the eyes. "Y-you said that I have the potential to become a level 5 if I'm to go through the Power Curriculum Program, right?" I asked.

The scientist blinked, then held her head in her hand. "A question, already? She's much more advanced than even I anticipated-" Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and crossed her arms, then looked me in the eye. "Ahem, excuse me. As I was going to say, that's correct."

"How can I do that if I'm going to die in a few years?"

The scientist perked up. "Ah, we're going to take steps to remedy that, of course," she said, adjusting her glasses with her right hand. "In fact, we asked our superiors if they knew someone who could deal with that, and they informed us of a certain doctor who could."

A breath I didn't even know I'd been holding released. "Okay," I said. I wasn't going to die.

I was going to live.

But was living a life of servitude to Academy City's Dark Side any better?

I shook my head. That wasn't important right now. What was more important was my appearance.

"You mentioned how I was going to be put into a public school, right?"

The woman nodded. "Yes?" she said.

"Then how am I going to be differentiated from Misaka- I mean, the Railgun?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me? That's not my issue."

"...oh."

"I'm sure the person who takes you to that doctor will be able to figure out some sort of disguise for you." She shrugged her shoulders, her arms still crossed.. "Regardless, it's none of my business."

"...Okay." I was surprised at that answer, even though I really shouldn't have been.

"Now, before you're to be picked up, we'll have to complete the standard operating procedure - or at the very least, a shortened version," she said. Turning to face the door, she shouted "You can come in now!"

"Finally!" I heard the more childish voice from earlier call out, as a shorter scientist stepped into the room. "It's been too long, and I wanted to meet her!"

"Hmph," the taller one said with a snort, pushing her glasses up her nose. "At least those childish actions from the last one have prepared you for a clone who's actually worth treating as more than just a guinea pig."

A clone who's worth treating as more than just a guinea pig.

I felt the world fall away.

"Ahh, it's fine though, right? Even if they're just guinea pigs, we might as well help them with some stuff!"

They thought of clones as guinea pigs. The Misaka sisters.

"Fine. Now then, cut her hair, will you? We don't exactly want the most successful clone in the history of Project Radio Noise to have long hair."

The people who were now my sisters.

"Sure, sure. Now then, BEST, just sit still while I do your hair."

I felt something which I vaguely recognized as the type of cloak you wore whilst having a haircut be wrapped around me, the words plastered on it

The Sister clones - who would mostly be my younger sisters, both in physical and mental age - were basically slaves for Academy City as of right now.

I winced as some hair fell on my neck around the haircut cloak (was that what they were called?) one of the scientists had put around my neck, trying to ignore the snipping sounds as the younger scientist cut my hair like I was some sort of doll.

It was easy to forget how screwed up this world was, but when a scientist basically says that 20 thousand people are essentially slaves, doing nothing but dying for the sake of a stupid science experiment, well… that sort of thing sticks with you.

Lost in my thoughts as I was, I started when I heard the younger scientist, who had been chattering away like it was nobody's business, chirp "All done!"

I blinked. Looking down at myself, I could see she was right. There was hair strewn out all around me on the bed I was sitting on, and I felt a clip being slid into my hair.

"What do you think?" A mirror was shoved in front of my face unceremoniously.

I stared.

I looked… well, I looked like an above-average-looking Japanese teenage girl. Not beautiful, but not average either. To be honest, if I were thinking straight at the time, I would have admitted that I even looked kind of cute.

I also looked eerily like how I'd imagine Mikoto Misaka to look, were she to exist in real life, with brown eyes, brown hair, and a face that just screamed 'Misaka.'

Had someone asked me how I'd feel if this happened to me before all of this, I would have probably answered that I'd be kind of happy. But now?

I was scared.

The dull buzz of the electric light was interrupted by a beeping. Turning to face the source, I saw the older scientist take a flip phone out of her pocket and flip it open. A scowl grew on her face. "Stop dilly-dallying," she said. "Her ride is here."

"Aww, you're no fun." The younger woman pouted.

Shaking her head, the older scientist turned to face me. "Now then," she said. "First, we'll need to get you dressed. You'll find clothes on that table over there." She pointed them out; they were on the table I had seen earlier. "Put them on, then you can leave and be out of our hair."

I stood up, unsteady on my feet for a few seconds, before righting myself, trying to ignore the implications of what that woman had said. Walking over to the desk in the corner, I looked at the items of clothing she'd mentioned.

A luminescent blush appeared on my face.

"Um, uh… do you mind looking away while I change?" I asked the two women who were staring at me expectantly without looking over at them, trying to hide my embarrassment.

"...I don't see why we can’t," the older woman said. I heard her feet and the younger one’s feet shuffle around.

Sighing in relief, I pulled off the white hospital gown-type clothing and hurriedly moved to put on the underwear that had been provided - the bra was thankfully a sports bra which fit fairly well, and the other underwear was… well, kind of embarrassing. I did it as fast as I could comfortably.

Once the underwear was on and it didn't feel like I was perving on an underage girl's naked body, I looked down at myself.

I looked fit. Fitter than I'd been in years in my last life.

Where I was now dead.

I winced. Probably best to not think about that for now.

Instead, I looked back at the clothes on the table, the familiar logo making the clothes glaringly obvious as to what they were.

Hesitantly, I picked them up, first putting on the dress shirt, then the skirt (short as it was, which was honestly too short) then finally the vest. For the finishing touch, I picked up the pair of shoes and socks that had been left with the clothes, kneeled down to the carpeted ground, and pulled them on, making sure to tie each one carefully before standing up.

If I was to look into a mirror around then, I was sure I could be confused for Mikoto Misaka herself, thanks to the Tokiwadai uniform that I was now wearing.

I turned back to the women, my blush less pronounced but still visible. “Alright, I’m done,” I said.

The older scientist turned around, looking at me. She held a hand to her chin. “Hmm…” Her eyes traced up and down my body, before she smiled. “Perfect. Now then, follow me.” She turned towards the door and started walking, the younger scientist following after her. She twisted the doorknob.

I blinked. “W-wait a second!” I hurried through the room, the alien feeling of wearing these clothes not distracting me too badly.

She looked back at me, a frown on her face as she opened the door and exited, the shorter scientist right behind her.

I followed her just barely after.

These were the first steps into my new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first endeavor at writing for a while (and my first overall on Archive Of Our Own) so I'm hoping for some good constructive criticism! I'm hoping that you all enjoy it as well!
> 
> Edit 25/02: I've revised the chapter since it's come out; hopefully it looks better now


	2. Chapter 2

The hallways of the laboratory were bright and almost buzzing with electricity; it almost felt like it was coming out of the walls. Ominous beeps filled the rooms we walked through over however long it was.

"Didn't you say the reason that clones didn't get emotions added was because they'd be easier to control, and less likely to rebel?" asked the younger scientist, as I followed the two women through the bright hallways.

"Yes, and we probably would have terminated this clone if it wasn't for the orders the Board of Directors gave us." She pushed her glasses up with a sigh. "Still, a potentially disobedient Level 5 is better than an emotionless guinea pig any day of the week."

"I'm right here, you know," I whispered - not loud enough for them to hear, but loud enough that I could hear myself. Hearing about how amoral the scientists of Academy City were and experiencing it were two totally different animals.

To them, the Misaka sisters - including me, I suppose - were just pieces in an experiment. We weren't people; we were just artificially grown guinea pigs.

I hated it.

At least the project would eventually get shut down with the help of Touma-

Panic flooded my mind. Touma. I couldn't let Touma touch me. I don't know how I got here, but theoretically, if Touma touched me, he could potentially destroy my personality - destroy what made me, well, me.

I didn't want that to happen. That might have been a selfish thing to say, but I didn’t want to be destroyed. I wanted to help people - at the very least, I wanted to help my sisters.

It was a selfish desire, but I'm a bit of a selfish person, you know?

And if that was going to be the case, there was no way I was going to let Touma touch me.

I shuddered. Even thinking about the idea of my conscious existence just… stopping was nightmarish.

Shaking my head, I tried to get that out of my mind. There’s no reason to think about that sort of thing happening; I could probably talk to Touma about it if we ever met, even. Not like chances of that were exactly high, of course, but still.

“Alright, we’re here.”

I blinked, looking at the older scientist. She’d stopped in front of a futuristic-looking door, the younger one beside her.

“Now, go on.” She took a card out of a pocket, pressed it to a card reader, and the door slid open. “Go.”

Through the doorway, it looked like there was a large lounge room. I could see a car park outside from the windows through it.

“Uh… isn’t this a bit, well, abrupt?” I asked.

The scientist arched an eyebrow. “Normally, before allowing a clone to leave the facility, we do some physical testing to make sure that the clone is in good shape. However, we’ve been assured that the person who the higher-ups have assigned to fix the issues with your body can make sure you’re in shape without having to go through those tests. The person who should be taking you there will be there soon, too. Now, go on.” She gestured to the open doorway. “Go.”

“...Alright.” I stepped forward, then through the doorway. It’s not that I wasn’t happy to get out of sight of those people, but weren’t they a little more attached or anything like that?

The door slid shut behind me, and I shook my head. No, that wasn’t exactly correct; Academy City researchers were mostly amoral and cared more about science than anything to do with the human condition. I probably should have expected that to happen.

I looked around the room. It was mostly empty of people, aside from someone sitting at the reception desk; a young woman, probably unaware of the types of experiments going on here. She probably got paid enough to ignore the sorts of things that went on in here, to be honest.

There were a couple of plants in the lobby too. A large black ceramic pot held a small palm tree that grew up to the roof next to my seat, in fact.

I walked over to a couch, turning around and sitting on it, making sure to keep my legs - my really thin legs, compared to before - close together. God, this Tokiwadai skirt was short. Like, really short. No exaggeration here. I'm not gonna lie, at that moment I understood why Misaka - well, that is to say, Mikoto, wore shorts underneath her skirt more than ever before.

There was a TV screen in the corner opposite me, above and to the left of the metal door I had just walked out of, playing on some sort of news channel. The news anchor looked young - mid-30s at the oldest - and was talking about some sort of recent Esper related incident.

Wait. Esper related…

I thought back to the discussion I'd been having with the scientist earlier. She'd mentioned that I was a Level 3 Esper, with the potential to become a Level 5. The strange feeling of electricity I'd felt while walking down those hallways.

I was an Esper now.

My chest full of excitement, I focused slightly, thinking about what I'd have to do to create a small spark. The mathematical formula came to me easily, even though I had never done it before, so I held up a hand and just… did it.

A spark leaped between two of my fingers.

My eyes widened. "Holy crap," I breathed.

Being told you're an Esper and actually using your ability are two different beasts. The first feels exciting, of course, but the second…

It feels like you have the whole world at your fingertips. Like it's your own world - you control electricity, and electricity is everywhere.

"I guess this is what's meant by a 'Personal Reality,' huh?" I said, smiling. I could use this.

I couldn't stop the experiment on my own - Mikoto Misaka, a Level 5, couldn't, while I was only a Level 3. I didn't doubt that if I tried, they'd be able to eliminate me in an instant.

Still, I'd at least be able to make a difference in this messed up world. I could even have some fun in the meantime.

The next few minutes, I was occupied by nothing more than holding up my hand and causing increasingly complex sparks and currents to move around it. I couldn't see the electricity in the air, but I could sense it well enough to manipulate it to an extent.

When my hand almost looked like a Tesla coil, the crackling and zapping noise of the electricity drowning out the rest of the world, I heard someone clear their throat.

I started, my calculations thrown off, and the sparks fizzling away. "Gah!"

"Well, looks like someone's already testing her ability out - and in a pretty frivolous way, too."

A slight blush appeared on my face, and I rubbed the back of my head. "U-uhm, yeah… I can explain-"

The woman in front of me sighed, a slight smile on her face. She had short black hair, and was wearing a long lab coat and long pants. "No need to explain. If I had an ability, I'd likely do the same. It's like a child playing with a new toy, right?"

"...right," I said, just barely resisting the urge to correct her assumption of me being a child.

Then again, I was one, wasn't I?

"It's interesting; I'd heard that you were going to be different to the other Sisters, but you're far more emotive than I expected." Her smile grew slightly wider. "I'm Yoshikawa Kikyou; pleased to meet you."

That name sounded vaguely familiar, almost like I'd heard it before. Still, she seemed oddly kind, in comparison to the earlier scientists.

Standing up, I stood straight and bowed forward slightly. "It's nice to meet you too. I guess you already know my name, though." My voice was a little bitter.

Yoshikawa chuckled. "No need to bow. I'm just here to take you to the person who's going to fix you up. They've explained to you why you need to go there, right?"

"...Yeah." I smiled.

Meanwhile, inwardly, I was panicking. Oh god, was I not supposed to know about the clones dying after long enough? Hopefully I would be able to hide that I knew that from people - or, better yet, hopefully those two scientists just didn't care enough to remember much about me.

"As for your other question… yeah, I remember the designation you were given by the project heads. It was 'Misaka BEST,' right?"

"Right," I muttered disdainfully.

She blinked. "You… don't like that name?"

I could have gone on a rant about how I wasn't just some clone, and how I was a person too - how I didn't want to be seen as some kind of tool.

Instead, I just shook my head.

"...hm." Yoshikawa stared at me, an odd look in her eyes. Turning towards the door, she looked over her shoulder. "Follow me; we're going to go to that doctor now."

Suddenly, a scene from earlier popped into my head. "...Wait. The older scientist said you were here earlier. Why did you take so long to come in?" I asked.

"Ah, that's because I was talking to a friend on the phone," Yoshikawa said, and chuckled. "She held me up for quite a bit, and just as I'd parked, too."

"...okay, then."

"Anyway, come on, won't you?" She nodded at me, then turned around and started to walk towards the doorway.

I followed, actually prepared this time instead of being caught off guard. Once I was outside, I caught my first glimpse of Academy City, in the flesh.

The carpark was circular, with the facility I'd just been in encompassing the majority of it, multiple stories high. I looked around for an exit, spotting an undercover one underneath the facility's second floor to the left. In the distance, through that exit, I could see a small urban landscape.

"Hey, don't be too long," Yoshikawa called. Looking over at her, I saw she was already next to one of the few cars in the car park - presumably the one that was hers. "This might not be too time sensitive, but we really should get there on time."

"O-okay!" I hurried over towards the car, pulling the left front door open and clambering in before pulling it shut. I put my seatbelt on and waited.

Yoshikawa climbed into the other side and took out a key, starting the car.

As the car backed out of the parking space, she spoke up. “So then, Testament’s probably told you a bit about Academy City, but you can’t say you’ve seen it until you’ve experienced it first-hand. I’ve heard it can be pretty overwhelming. So, are you ready?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. Was I ready? That question had a lot of nuance - it could have meant a lot of things. ‘Are you ready to see Academy City,’ for instance, or ‘Are you ready for your new life.’

I know what she meant, but my brain kept cycling through all the potential meanings. ‘Are you ready to die to Imagine Breaker?’ ‘Are you ready to be a Level 5 Esper?’ ‘Are you ready for this world?’

I banished those questions from my head, Best to just answer what she asked me, right?

“...I guess,” I said.

Yoshikawa smiled. “Alright. We’re off.” Out of the parking space now, Yoshikawa drove the car towards the exit.

Pulling up at the exit, she stopped in front of a boom gate, and a mechanical arm with a rectangular object at the end descended from the ceiling. The rectangular object turned towards the car, and a green glow flashed on.

I winced when green light appeared in my vision. Then, the arm retreated, almost comically being sucked up into the ceiling, and the boom gate opened.

Yoshikawa drove out, and I saw Academy City.

My mouth opened wide, and my head turned to the left window as Yoshikawa turned right. People had gone on about how Academy City was the city of the future when it came to what kind of a city it was, but the show hadn’t done it justice.

The facility we’d left was opposite a giant, undeveloped field of grass. From where we were, I could see a lot of Academy City.

The very first thing that stood out was the enormous structure that I vaguely remembered being a space elevator. It was huge - large enough that it felt like I could almost touch it even from how far away we were. Even so, the skyscrapers that dotted the landscape were no slouches; it felt like they actually scraped the sky, from what I could see of them. They were nowhere near as large as the massive space elevator, but they were still huge - almost like something I’d expect from New York.

“It’s enormous, isn’t it?”

I blinked, turning back to look at Yoshikawa. “Huh?”

“Academy City. Don’t worry, you’re not the first to react like this - other Misakas have seen how big the city is and reacted to it with shock and surprise too. Of course, their response is a little more muted than yours.” She kept her eyes on the road as she talked.

“Well… yeah. I know that it’s supposed to be this city of the future or something, but I didn’t expect it to be as impressive as this,” I said.

Yoshikawa chuckled. “Sometimes, with situations like this, I don’t think Testament has done a good enough job of imprinting how impressive the City is onto clones. Oh, that reminds me!”

I blinked. “What is it?”

“You seemed like you didn’t really like being called… well, by your official designation. Do you wanna be called something different?”

A word popped into my head instantly. “Yeah, actually,” I said. “Call me Minami.”

“Minami, huh?” She sounded happy. “That’s a good name.”

I was quiet for a second. Then I spoke up. "This doctor we're going to... Do you think he'll really be able to do it? That he'll be able to fix me up?"

"Yes, Minami." Her voice was firm with confidence, and although hearing my new name felt a bit weird, it wasn't bad at all. "Yes I do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey; sorry if the chapter was a little content-less, but I'm trying to introduce the characters more than anything else.
> 
> I'd also like some feedback on how Yoshikawa was portrayed; I haven't seen many of her scenes.


	3. Chapter 3

The ride most of the rest of the way was silent, with Yoshikawa focusing on driving, and me looking out the window with childlike wonder, at one point even pressing my face up to the glass and just gaping.

I might have said this before, but I'll say it again with no compunction: Academy City in real life is far, far more impressive than any representation of it in any piece of visual media has ever been. As we drove deeper into the city, the windmills - a staple of Academy City, which were probably used to generate energy - grew increasingly more common, soon dotting almost every corner. Cleaning bots roamed the streets, picking up any trash that had been littered on the ground.

Eventually though, the sights grew stale - Academy City was just a city, and once you’ve seen one city you’ve pretty much seen them all. The robots were intriguing of course, but they weren’t anything really new to me - cleaning robots existed in my old world after all, though I hadn’t seen them before. It did feel like it took longer than usual to get bored though - even though Academy City was just a city, it was a pretty interesting and futuristic one - and the skyscrapers still interested me somewhat, but it wasn’t enough to prevent my boredom. I think in part what Testament had done helped - it made a lot of these things feel like they were already old hat.

I sighed, plonking my back on the seat. I’m not sure what I had expected; being in a fictional universe didn’t mean that boredom didn’t exist. Especially with no access to the internet.

“Bored already?” I heard Yoshikawa say, a hint of humour in her voice.

Looking over at her, I saw the side of her lip upturned.

“What do you mean by already?” I asked, genuine confusion in my voice. “We’ve been in this car for at least an hour by now.”

“It’s actually been,” she glanced at the clock in the middle of the car, “an hour and 20 minutes. Still, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. A lot of your Sisters react similarly, although much more quickly, from what I’ve heard from them.”

Something about that sentence stood out to me, and I frowned, putting my fingers on my chin. Obviously, Yoshikawa knew about Project Radio Noise - the project to make the Sister clones. Therefore, it probably followed that she knew about the Level 6 Shift.

So if that was the case, why was she acting the way she was towards me?

I looked over towards her. “Hey, Yoshikawa?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you know about the Sisters?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m a researcher in the Level Six Shift project.” Her voice was the same as always - light, filled with humour. “I talk with them sometimes, after they’ve been created.”

I felt my blood turn cold.

“You’re a researcher for that?”

Yoshikawa nodded. “Yes, I am.”

My chest hurt. It felt like some sort of betrayal.

“B-but why?”

Yoshikawa shifted in her seat. “Well… Regardless of the sacrifices we make to create a Level Six, in the end, that’s Academy City’s true goal. So it shouldn’t matter, sacrificing a few clones that cost barely anything in the grand scheme of things to create one. Right?”

The car slowed down as we stopped at a traffic light, and my eyes widened. I breathed in once, out once. What she had just said, it didn’t sound like something that someone who was certain would say. It sounded like she was hesitant, actually. It felt like I could have actually convinced her that she was wrong.

“What’s the difference between a clone and any other person, though?” I asked, crossing my arms over the seatbelt. “Clones look like other people, but they aren’t those people. They’re people of their own, just newly born, with personalities and ambitions and everything else, too. I mean, just look at me.”

Yoshikawa was silent for a second, but it looked like her hands were gripping the wheel harder than before. “Well, you are an anomaly,” she said. “Somewhat like a Gemstone, as a matter of fact. However, that might not necessarily mean you’re wrong…” She grew silent.

The car started up again. Looking out the front window, I saw that the light had gone green. I thought for a couple of seconds about what I would say next, as the car’s speed grew to a comfortable cruise.

“Just, think about it, okay?” I said, looking back towards her. “You don’t seem like that bad of a person. So I’m sure you’ll come to the correct conclusion - that this whole experiment is wrong, and you’d be right to stop supporting it.”

She laughed - not one of humour, but a bitter, wry one. “Sure, I’ll think about it.”

“That’s good,” I said, looking away from her towards the window.

After that, silence was the only sound that filled the drive for the next few minutes, before I heard Yoshikawa speak up.

“You know, you’re not that different from how I’ve heard the original is, Minami.”

I blinked, looking over at her, a confused look on my face. “What?”

She had a smile on her own face again. “From what I know, the Railgun is an impassioned young lady with a fierce sense of justice and a penchant to protect those weaker or more disadvantaged than her. Sounds familiar, wouldn’t you say?”

I blinked. Was she comparing me… to Mikoto? I held up my hands. “Oh, no, I’m nothing like her at all. She’s almost certainly much more impressive than I am, in fact,” I said.

She chuckled. “If you say so,” she said, some humour in her voice, despite her eyes being on the road.

My eye twitched, despite my smile. “Seriously, though. Don’t compare me to her; I’m only a Level 3, according to all of you, and she’s a level 5. I don’t get how that could even be a direct comparison. So like I said, I’m nothing like her.” I tried to ignore the frustration that was building inside of me - I wouldn’t let her get to me-

“If you say so,” Yoshikawa repeated, interrupting my thoughts.

My mouth opened and shut without me saying a word. The frustration spiked, and I blew up, throwing my hands into the air in the car. “Argh! I’m not like her at all!” I snapped. “So quit saying that!” My words were accompanied by an odd buzzing.

“I’ve also heard the Railgun has a pretty short temper, too, and gets easily frustrated,” Yoshikawa said casually. “So really, what you’re doing right now is just digging yourself deeper.”

My jaw dropped. I tried to stammer something out, but I just couldn’t, so I just shut my mouth. For some reason, it felt like my face was burning.

“Oh, look, we’re here,” Yoshikawa commented, turning into a hospital’s carpark. “That was certainly an eventful last stretch, wasn’t it?”

“Shaddup,” I muttered, my leg hopping up and down as I looked out the window at the hospital. At this point, my cheeks felt like they were made of magma. 

To distract myself, I stared at the hospital, trying to see if it was any different from the hospitals I’d been to in. It looked oddly familiar, but it was also an oddly average hospital - not really remarkable in any way, shape or form.

In fact, it was surprisingly humble for what I’d expect from Academy City - it was in an area with a lot of trees and some grass, and nowhere near as tall as I would expect a hospital in Academy City to be.

It was kind of disappointing, honestly.

The car stopped, then turned around, the hospital going out of view from the window as Yomikawa parked it.

As soon as the engine had stopped, I reached for my seatbelt, undoing it. Opening the door, I stood up, my shoes hitting the bitumen with a crunch, and shut it. 

On the other side, Yoshikawa did the same. She stretched her arms up into the air, a satisfied sigh coming from her lips. “Ah, that’s good; a stretch after such a long drive is always refreshing.”

I looked up at the hospital, staring. The sun was near the horizon, so it lit the place with a golden glow. A slight breeze blew over me, ruffling my hair. “So this is the place,” I commented.

“I know; it doesn’t look like much, does it?” Yoshikawa said. She stepped up onto the curb, turning her head to face mine. “Fortunately, the man who you’re going to see could honestly be called the best doctor in the world and I wouldn’t be surprised.”

My eyes widened, and my head turned around at a breakneck pace to face hers. There was only one doctor who I could think of that fit that description.

Yoshikawa’s eyes closed. “I don’t know his name, but the name he goes by is Heaven Canceller.”

\----

The hospital was as unimpressive inside as it was outside. It looked like any old hospital - well, a little more advanced maybe, but it didn’t seem like some kind of top medical facility. That made it all the more impressive. Still, it seemed less like the type of hospital I was used to, and more like a hospital combined with a GP practice. The walls were more beige than pure white, and the lights were LED-based.

As I followed Yoshikawa through the hallways and saw the standard pamphlets that littered hospital walls (well, not standard, since I doubted many places had pamphlets that talked about potential brain hemorrhages thanks to overstraining Esper abilities, or being assaulted by angry Level 4s. I’m not sure I needed the mental image), I took a couple peeks into rooms too, if their doors were open. In the first room, I saw a young girl talking to a doctor in a hazard suit. The girl sneezed, and with the sneeze a veritable torrent of flame came out of her nose. In the second, there was a college-age boy who looked normal from the back, but when he turned around to face the doctor he was presumably talking to, his face looked like it was melting off.

Needless to say, I didn’t peek into any more rooms after that.

While we walked, hospital technicians and various medical practitioners of different types filled the hallways. I wish I could have put it better than that, but I didn’t know which ones were which.

Finally, after what felt like 5 minutes of walking, Yoshikawa took a left, and I followed after her, noting the short hallway that ended in an elevator door, one of those common metal ones that you see everywhere that part in the middle.

Yoshikawa pressed the button to call the elevator - a touch screen, then turned around. She had a small smile on her face. “Heaven Canceller should be waiting for us when we get out of the elevator. Just in case you’re wondering why we’re not checking in with the hospital, And, hmm, let me think about an interesting fact…” She paused, putting her hand to her chin, then her eyes lit up and she smacked her hand, now a fist, into her flat open palm. “His face looks a bit like a frog’s.” She chuckled, holding a hand over her mouth.

If I hadn’t remembered at this point that multiple people from you know what describing him that way, I would have probably pointed out the potential rudeness. Given that I had remembered it at the time, I simply hummed to myself. “That’s interesting. In what way?”

“Well, you’ll have to see for yourself.” Yoshikawa winked.

Suddenly, the elevator dinged, and she blinked, then smiled. “Ah, our ride’s here.” She walked in, rather nonchalantly, and I followed behind her.

As I turned to face the door, something became very clear - this was one of those mirror elevators.

I froze, just staring at the reflection in it.

I’d still been in shock the first time I saw myself, and I had just seen my face. This time, seeing most of my body was incredibly weird, especially considering I was wearing the Tokiwadai uniform.

There was no doubting it - I looked like Mikoto Misaka. The translation from animation to reality didn’t change that much at all, besides reducing the animesque traits and slightly darkening the skin.

Well, if there was ever a good reason to look like someone, being their literal clone would probably be on the best of the list. I snorted. At least if I ever got back home I’d be good at cosplay.

Home… I shook my head, banishing the curiosity at my appearance and the melancholy thoughts that were about to appear. Now really wasn’t the time for this. Now was time for my checkup.

A ding reverberated throughout the elevator, and I blinked, turning around to face the door. The ride had been a lot shorter than I’d expected.

Yoshikawa was standing next to the controls, leaning on the wall of the elevator.

I tried not to gulp. This would be my first meeting with someone who could really make a change in this place of craziness - the most exciting town in the world, Academy City.

The elevator doors opened.

I stared.

If you were reading my mind at that moment, you’d see that my thoughts would be ‘Holy shit, he really does look like a frog.’ And no, I’m not kidding. Take my word on it - it was really weird.

From that moment on, I understood what Yoshikawa meant when she said ‘well, you’ll have to see for yourself,’ because as someone who has seen Heaven Canceller, I’ve maintained that you really do need to see him for yourself to see just how much he looks like a frog.

“So, this is my patient for today, Yoshikawa?” he asked, looking over towards me. His voice was, well, old and raspy but strong.

Yoshikawa stood up, inclining her head as she stepped out of the elevator. “Yes, that’s her. She prefers to be called Minami, and, well… You know what to do.”

I quickly stepped out behind her, still just staring

“Minami, huh? Not a bad name,” Heaven Canceller mused. “Ah, well. The both of you follow me, won’t you? The treatment room’s over here.” He turned around and started to walk.

As I started to walk next to Yoshikawa behind him, I smiled wryly. “I sure have been doing a lot of following today, huh?”

“Oh, after this, I’ll do her physical examination too,” he added, looking back at Yoshikawa. “But that will only really be a formality; I’m pretty confident from seeing her that she’ll be the epitome of health for a girl with a 12-year old body.”

I blinked, stopping in my tracks. “...Eh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> So here’s chapter 3. Hoping for some feedback (and yes, Minami has been doing a lot of following today. Bit difficult to not do it when you can’t do much else, though).
> 
> Also, a little bit of a surprise at the end.


	4. Chapter 4

After a few seconds where my brain was still processing what had been said, my eye twitched. “...WHAT?!”

Yoshikawa looked over at me, blinking. “What is it, Minami?”

I looked at her, just standing there with my arms hanging by my side. “Why am I _12_?!” I said, my voice laced with desperation. “I was under the impression that all subjects of Project Radio Noise were 14!”

“Oh, yeah,” Yoshikawa muttered, turning to face me. She closed her eyes, rubbing her nose with a huff. “Well, it was decided that since you were a clone with the potential to become a Level 5, your age would be reduced in comparison to the Original and the other Sisters, so you’d have the time to go through a middle school Power Curriculum Program from the beginning, and grow into your abilities naturally. I was expecting you to already know that thanks to the use of Testament, but oh well.” She shrugged, her face becoming resigned. “I suppose your biological age wasn’t that important when it came down to the wire.”

“B-but _12?_ ”

“Well, going on 13,” Yoshikawa clarified, crossing her arms. “From what I remember personally, the hormone cocktail was slightly adjusted after we were made aware that you would be able to become a Level 5, and the scientists who were supervising the research location where you were… well, you know,” she coughed, “were ordered to take you out of the tank early. So your biological body is about… 12 years and 8 months old? Give or take a month, I think.”

“Hey, that’s enough dilly-dallying,” the voice of Heaven Canceller rang out. “You came here for a treatment, didn’t you? I’m not going to be waiting here all day for you to explain something to my patient when there are people to treat, including her.”

I started, looking over at him.

He was standing next to a door, his expression not quite a scowl but not quite neutral either, as he stared at the both of us, one hand in his pocket and the other holding the door open. "Seriously, I don't have all day. Come in here and we'll get the procedure started - if you're ready, of course."

I looked over at Yoshikawa, who was standing with her sleeves in her lab coat pockets.

She arched an eyebrow. "Well? You heard him."

"Right," I said, nodding. This was what I was here for anyway, after all - for treatment.

So as I walked towards and into the room that Heaven Canceller was standing in front of, why was it that I was feeling nervous?

I waited as Yoshikawa filed in, Heaven Canceller after her as he closed the door. 

As the door shut, I turned my attention to the room. It looked very different to the GP-type rooms from the ground floor - there were medical devices spread around it basically everywhere (I think one of them was called an EKG?), and the walls were mostly bare, aside from a few anatomical posters. There was also a bed situated in the middle of the room, and a door on the side, leading to presumably some sort of attachment. A TV screen was on the wall opposite me, and a side table lay next to the bed, some magazines, remotes, a tissue box, and a telephone on it, among other things..

“Now then,” Heaven Canceller began, turning to face me from the door. “Go and take a seat on the bed, and I’ll let you know about what will be happening today with regards to this procedure.”

I nodded, pushing myself up onto it and sitting down. From my position, I could see Yoshikawa leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“So,” Heaven Canceller started, walking towards a trolley next to the bed. “As the information that I’ve been sent on your condition says, as a clone-” he grimaced- “you were grown using artificial hormones, as opposed to normal hormones.” He pulled out two gloves while he was talking from a latex glove box, laying them out. “As such, I’m going to have to put you under in order to operate on your pituitary gland, so it can produce the proper hormones to allow for your continued survival and growth, alongside flushing out and equalizing the imbalanced hormones in your body.”

It felt like ice had frozen my veins.

“My pituitary gland, huh? Isn’t that in- no, near the brain?” I asked. The idea of having someone poking around inside of my literal physical brain wasn’t pleasant - even if it was Heaven Canceller doing it.

“Mhm,” he nodded. “There’s no need to worry about it though. After all, it’s not like the surgery is going to fail.”

If someone else had talked to me about something like that, it probably would have been full of arrogance and pride. For Heaven Canceller, though, it didn’t feel like that - instead, it felt like he was merely commenting on the state of the weather, or talking about how the sun rose and set in the sky. It was just a fact that he could do this without harming me.

And the thing is? I believed him.

“However,” he added, holding up a finger. “That doesn’t mean the aftereffects of this surgery will be nonexistent. Your hormone profile is so immensely out of whack, your growth will probably be stunted for a while even after the surgery, at least in comparison to the donor whose genes were used to create you.”

I blinked. 

“As of right now, you’re about 4 feet and 5 inches tall, I would estimate,” Heaven Canceller continued. “At my estimate, you’re probably going to grow a little, then stay at 4 feet and 9 inches tall for a couple of years before your growth continues.”

My lips parted slightly, and I gripped onto the bedsheets with my left hand. I was 4’5? I knew I’d be getting a little smaller, but I’d been under the impression it would be somewhat taller than _that_. And getting stuck at 4’9 did not sound like something I wanted if I ever wanted to be taken seriously.

Heaven Canceller’s face softened. “Ah, but no need to worry about that either. You’ll be provided with some hormone supplements in order to help with your growth rate. So long as you take them, it should be fine, and your growth rate should be normal,” he said.

I took a sharp breath. “How did you…” I trailed off, going silent.

“How did I know how you felt about that?” Heaven Canceller asked, arching an eyebrow and crossing his arms. “Who do you think I am? An inconsiderate fool of a doctor? I try to keep consideration for all of my patients in mind.”

I stared at him, my jaw slack, and my hand loosening its grip on the sheets. I’d heard Heaven Canceller was something special... but this? This had just cemented it in my mind.

“Now, just let me know when you’re ready, and we can start preparing you to go under.”

I tensed, squeezing my knees together and holding onto the edge of my too short skirt with my fists.

Heaven Canceller noticed, and his expression turned into a frown. He furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Uh, well…” I looked down at my knees. My bangs fell over my eyes, the hair covering my vision in a kind of annoying manner. “I’m… I’m scared of going under,” I whispered. 

His face cleared up. “Ah, I see. That’s entirely fair.” He nodded. “You know the scientific theories about anesthetic potentially either just restricting the ability to make memories and the theories about continuity of consciousness then, I’d assume?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“Well, let me just be clear, since I’ve examined this myself in patients I’ve had before and have come to this conclusion: when you wake up, you’ll still be the same person who was put under anesthetic, just as you will be unconscious while you’re under anesthetic.” His words felt like they were. “So don’t worry.”

From anyone else, I would have dismissed that as simple hearsay, or even just bluffing in order to calm someone down. But hearing those words from Heaven Canceller, the greatest medical doctor in potentially all of existence… I felt relief. I would still be me - I wouldn’t be losing any memories, I wouldn’t be in pain, I would be _me_.

For the first time since I woke up in this world, I felt truly safe.

“I… I think I’m ready,” I said. I looked back at Heaven Canceller. My face was set in a mask of grim determination, my lips a thin line.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Yoshikawa give a quick smile.

Heaven Canceller nodded, a look of determination on his face. “Alright. Now then, take these.” He turned towards the trolley once again, pulling out the second drawer and rifling through it. Pulling out a hospital gown and a pair of white pants, he held it up to me. “Go and change in the bathroom.” He pointed to the door on the other side of the room.

\----

A few minutes later, I’d changed into the hospital clothes, leaving the Tokiwadai uniform in the bathroom (more like a changing room with a shower) and was now lying on the bed. Despite what Heaven Canceller had said earlier, I still felt a bit nervous, and my hands were holding onto the sheets tightly.

Yoshikawa had excused herself after I’d gotten changed. I couldn’t blame her; I wouldn’t necessarily want to see a surgery like this either.

Though, considering the tidbit of information that she was involved in the Level Six Shift, that may not have been the reason she had left the room.

It was still surreal to think that the woman who had been acting kind towards me all day was participating in such a horrific experiment - not only that, but she was a researcher associated with the experiment, even if she was unsure about it.

I glanced over at Heaven Canceller, who was standing to the side, a pair of gloves on his hands which were holding an anesthetic mask (or whatever they call those things) and a surgical mask on his face. “Just tell me when you’re ready,”

I took a deep breath in, then breathed out slowly. Just the thought that it was Heaven Canceller who was going to do this procedure was incredibly relieving - I didn’t know that much about him, but even I knew he was insanely skilled in his field. “I… I think I’m ready,” I said, trying to inject as much firm determination into my voice as I could. It wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped - even the best doctor in the world isn’t going to assuage all your ingrained fears.

Still, it helped a little that the doctor who was doing the surgery on me was actually the best doctor in the world.

“Alright,” Heaven Canceller said. His eyes turned upwards, in the way of a smile. “Just close your eyes and make sure to breathe in deeply.”

I nodded, a spike of fear going through my head that I tried to ignore as the doctor approached me. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in.

An instant later, I felt lethargic and weird - my thoughts felt foggy. There was also something that I couldn’t quite describe, but I felt… more _whole_ , in a way.

“Ah, she’s awake,” I heard Heaven Canceller say.

I opened my eyes, wincing at the lights above my head. ‘Waking up?’ I wasn’t sure what he meant by that.

I tried sitting up, but I saw Heaven Canceller lean in, holding me down gently. “Don’t move; you’re going to need to stay here to recover for a couple of days,” he said, a gentle note to his voice.

“Wha happened,” I slurred, my voice not totally intelligible.

“You’re a very brave girl,” the doctor said, a smile on his face.

I could feel my ears start to burn.

“I managed to successfully complete the surgery some time ago, and you’ve only just woken up.” He took his hands off my shoulders, putting them in his pockets. “It went rather well.”

I squinted, the burning sensation leaving my face. What? “But you just put the mask on,” I mumbled.

He chuckled. “Academy City’s anesthesia sure is powerful, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice in good humour.

“Yeah, it really is,” I heard Yoshikawa’s voice from the side.

My eyes flicked to where I could hear her voice from, and saw she was leaning on a wall, hands in her labcoat pockets.

“Still,” she said, a smile on her face, “don’t count yourself out. I can never get used to the miracles you’re able to do with the simplest of tools.”

Heaven Canceller gave off a hearty laugh. “You’re not wrong,” he said, good humour in his voice. Turning back to me, he smiled. “I’ll send up some nurses to check up on you in a bit, but for now, Yoshikawa should be able to watch you well enough. I have another patient I need to deal with. Still, this bears repeating: you’re a very brave girl.” He put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair.

“Hey, stop that,” I tried, the words coming out less heated than I had intended, even though my face felt like it was on fire. It was too much effort to swipe at him though, so I just let him do it.

“Alright, then,” he said, lifting his hand off of my head and smiling. He had a nice smile - if he was a bit younger, he’d probably be pretty cute. “Well, I’ll have to cut this short then. It was nice meeting you.” He turned away, walking off towards the door. Before he left, he turned around and waved at me, before opening the door and leaving, closing it behind him.

“He’s nice,” I blurted out.

Yoshikawa laughed, holding up a hand in front of her face. “He is,” she said, nodding.

It was at this point my brain decided to remind me of something that the man had said a little bit ago.

_You’re going to need to stay here to recover for a couple of days._

My reaction was… not very good to say the least.

Oh, well, at least I had the TV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: 
> 
> A bit of insight into Minami’s character in this chapter as she undergoes a surgery; Academy City’s technology is amazing, isn’t it?


	5. Chapter 5

"Ah, sir! You're going to choke if you keep eating that quickly!"

"Don't you worry, girly! This old man's got more than enough gumption to survive simply eating a few pieces of meat!"

As the characters' voices rang out, the scenario they were in getting more and more uncomfortable and out of control, I smiled, shifting slightly to make my positioning on the bed even more comfortable. Despite the existence of superpowered children and magic, this really wasn't that different to my old world.

After a few seconds, I sighed, my smile replaced by a neutral expression. My chest hurt, and dark thoughts started to swirl inside my head. I couldn't keep running from my old life.

Even if I had died, there was no way I would leave my family with nothing, or even my friends. I needed- no, I wanted to go back there. I felt my eyes begin to water.

I shook my head, blinking my eyes furiously. No, I couldn't think about it. Now was a time I needed to be strong, otherwise Academy City would chew me up and spit me out like gum. Besides, I was dead already in that place, so what would be the point?

Unless, since I died here, maybe to get back there…

Suddenly, the sound of frantic coughing from the TV banished the dark thoughts from my head. I refocused my attention on it, and the sight of one of the characters hitting the other in the back made laughter bubble up from me.

Laughter wasn't the greatest medicine, but it sure was a good distraction.

A sudden knock on the door interrupted my musings.

My eyes opened wide, and it suddenly felt like I'd spent too much time with my face in the sun. My arm shot towards the remote on the side table and grabbed it. I fumbled with it, pointed it at the TV and pressed the power button. The screen shut off, the scene of Gekota being helped by a waitress frog disappearing with

Yes, Gekota had a TV show. Yes, I was a fan already.

Shut up.

"Come in!" I called out, keeping my voice level and trying to ignore the fact that my face could probably fry an egg right now.

The door cracked open, and Yoshikawa peeked her head in, before opening it all the way. She had a wide smile on her face and was wearing casual clothes (a white shirt and black pants, as absolutely boring as that was); she held a bag at her side, too,. "So, I see you've taken a liking to Gekota, huh?" she said

"So, I see you own clothes other than your lab coat and the clothes you wear under that, huh?" I retorted, my blush intensifying as I looked to the side and crossed my arms.

Yoshikawa winced. "Turnabout is fair play, I suppose," she conceded. "Especially since I just bought them today."

I blinked, the heat in my face subsiding as I looked back at her. "Wait, really?" My voice had no heat in it, just confusion.

She nodded, putting the bag onto a chair and her hands in her short pockets. "Most everything I do is related to the project, so until recently I've seen no reason to not wear it all the time." She chuckled. "What would my parents think, I wonder?"

"Huh," I said, my voice blank. I hadn't thought she had actually owned nothing other than her lab clothes.

"Anyway, do you know why I'm here today?" Yoshikawa said, clearly changing the subject. I didn't particularly mind, of course, but still.

I squinted, putting my fingers on my chin and thinking over the past couple of days. Heaven Canceller had put me through some tests measuring my health and confirming that I was a healthy 12-year-old girl (being that young still felt weird), and I'd been stuck in this bed doing nothing but watching TV, eating food, sleeping, and using a bedpan (embarrassingly; Heaven Canceller had basically told me I wasn't allowed to move from the bed for the next two days after I woke up), with the occasional attempt to get used to using my ability. Something tugged at my memory, but I couldn't seem to drag it to the forefront.

After a few seconds I shook my head. "No, not really," I said. "It feels like I should know, but I can't seem to remember it."

"I would have thought you would remember it, considering today's the day you're getting out," Yoshikawa said. She smirked. "Especially considering the tantrum you had when you figured out you were going to stay here for two whole days."

I winced. Now I remembered. The drug-filled haze from after I woke up had cleared slightly, and I tried to force the image of me ranting out of my mind. "To be fair, I was still under the influence at the time," I said in a strained tone of voice, my attempt at defending myself halfhearted as my eyes strayed away from Yoshikawa's.

She chuckled. "I would have thought you'd be more excited, since the time you're required to stay here for being up means you've been cleared to leave," she commented, taking her hands out of her pockets and crossing her arms.

I felt excitement well up in my chest, and a hopeful smile appeared on my face. "Wait, really?" I asked. I was finally able to get out of here, free from this boring hospital, where the only thing I had to do was watch TV, and go to greater Academy City, where I could see all sorts of crazy and amazing things.

There was only one downside I could think of, as my eyes strayed towards the TV and I realized something. "No Gekota," I mumbled dejectedly, trying and failing to hide my disappointment.

"That show is on public TV, you realize?" Yoshikawa pointed out. "I can write down the time it's on for you, if you really need me to."

Instantly, I smiled at her with my eyes closed, chuckling nervously. "Oh, it's n-no problem; you really don't need to," I said, crossing my arms over my chest, looking away slightly. "I can find that out on my own if I really want to."

"...alright, I suppose," Yoshikawa said. "Now then, today we're going to be doing something I think you'll enjoy."

I blinked, looking back towards her and putting my arms at my sides. "Something I'll enjoy?" I asked.

The smile on her face widened slightly. "Shopping for school supplies."

My face turned blank. “...School supplies?” I said in a deadpan.

“Yep. Remember, you’re going to school after all, so we can’t exactly leave you without supplies,” Yoshikawa said.

“You’re taking me shopping for school supplies.”

“Well, not me,” she clarified, holding up a finger. “More like a friend of mine - I can’t really stand being outside for long.” As she was talking, she leaned down and picked up the bag she’d put down on the chair. “She came here with me, though. Still, I’m sure it’ll be fun - you’ll get to buy all sorts of clothes too, won’t you?”

“It’s not the clothes I’m worried about,” I muttered underneath my breath, scowling. I’d already gone through school once - I didn’t exactly want to go through it again, regardless of how much I needed a refresher on all the subjects I’d forgotten.

“Don’t you worry; I’m sure you’ll get right into the swing of things,” she said, and tossed the bag she’d been holding towards me.

Barely catching it, I took the bag and opened it.

I blinked. “You got me clothes?”

“Mhm,” Yoshikawa said, crossing her arms, before pausing. “Well, it’d be more accurate to say my friend bought them, but they should be your size.”

I pulled out the shirt, shorts, and underwear. The bra was a sports bra - pretty utilitarian, but nothing I could really be against - and the panties were pretty plain, being blue and white striped. The shorts, meanwhile, were made of denim, decently long, thankfully, and not a skirt barely long enough to hide anything, also thankfully.

I unfolded the shirt, which was mostly black, and held it up in front of me. My face turned blank. “Are you serious,” I said, my face deadpan.

“I mean… you do like the show, don’t you?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t exactly mean I want to share my enjoyment of the show for the whole world to see!” I snapped, the room feeling like a sauna as I held up the Gekota-print shirt towards Yoshikawa.

“Anyway, we need to get going soon, so make sure to get dressed,” Yoshikawa said, turning towards the door and opening it. “I’ll be waiting outside while you do. Just getting the clearance from Heaven Canceller to make sure you can leave, you know."

My jaw dropped. After a few seconds of being gobsmacked, my voice turned back on. “H-hey, wait-”

The door slammed.

I grumbled. “Coward,” I muttered.

\----

The automatic doors to the hospital opened, and I walked out behind Yoshikawa, Gekota shirt and denim shorts on, the bag in my right hand containing the Tokiwadai uniform. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked, reaching up behind my head and fiddling with the ponytail she’d put my hair into.

“It’ll be fine,” Yoshikawa said, looking back over her shoulder with a smile. “You worry too much, Minami. Ah, our ride’s here.” She pointed at a car.

I looked over. It seemed like a pretty normal car - nothing top of the line or anything - but the woman in the driver’s window looked awfully familiar for some reason. From what I could see from outside the window, she was wearing a green jersey, with her long black hair done up into a ponytail.

“Aiho!” Yoshikawa called out, holding her hands up to her mouth, and the woman in the car looked over.

The newly named Aiho perked up. “Ah, Kikyou!” she said. “Come on, over here!” She beckoned us over with a wave, and Yoshikawa complied.

I followed right after her, and soon we were standing next to the driver’s seat.

Aiho ‘hmm’ed. “So this is the girl you were talking about, huh?” she asked.

“Yep; this is Minami,” she said. Turning to me, she pointed towards the other woman. “This is Yomikawa Aiho. She’s irresponsible, shameless, somewhat lazy, and a heavy drinker, but she’s ultimately a good person.” She smiled. “She’ll also be the one to help you buy school supplies.”

Yomikawa Aiho smiled, her eyes closed. “It’s nice to meet you, Minami- Hey, wait a second!” She looked over at Yoshikawa, her anger coming to the forefront in a kind of childish manner. “Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, you know!”

“You’re saying that habit you have of using rice cookers for everything isn’t lazy, Aiho?” Yoshikawa’s face brooked no argument, but it felt rather cheeky - like the two of them had had this routine before.

However, the self-referential comedy routine fell flat. Instead, my brain was running in circles, my eyes wide as I stared at Yomikawa Aiho.

I know where I knew her from.

She was a teacher from Touma’s school. She was also a member of Anti-Skill.

This was the second time I had met someone from, well, what I saw of this world from that TV show.

This time, though, it wasn’t the doctor who would help anyone and everyone, regardless of who they were. This time, it was someone who I knew probably had significance with regards to the future in some way, shape, or form.

“...You okay, kiddo?”

I started, realizing that both Yomikawa and Yoshikawa were staring at me. Putting a smile on my face, I chuckled nervously, bowing. “Ah, I’m fine. There’s no need to worry about me,” I said, trying to calm my nerves.

Yomikawa glanced at Yoshikawa for a second, an unspoken conversation going on between the two of them.

“A-anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Miss Yomikawa,” I said, bowing. “I hope we can get along well.”

The worry cleared off of Yomikawa’s face, though I doubted it was all gone. “Ah, just call me Yomikawa; there’s no need for that sort of formality,” Yomikawa said, waving a hand with a grin. “It’s not like I’m your teacher or anything.”

My eyes widened, and I realized the slip-up. “R-right,” I chuckled, closing my eyes and putting my hand behind my head. “Silly me.” I’d just called Yomikawa ‘Yomikawa-sensei’ instead of ‘Yomikawa-san.’ She wasn’t even my teacher.

“Anyway, Kikyou told you about why I’m here, right?”

“Mhm,” I nodded. “She’s too lazy to help me shop for school supplies-” ugh, I really didn’t want to do that- “and asked you to do it with me instead.”

Yoshikawa’s face fell. “That’s a little rude.”

Yomikawa, meanwhile, barked out a laugh. “Ah, I like you already, kid,” she said, a grin on her face as she put her hand out the window. “And it’s not like you can say she’s wrong, Kikyou.”

“I’ve told you already, if I try walking outside for more than an hour, I’ll collapse.”

“Yeah, yeah, keep trying that excuse.” She gestured, her grin a little less prominent but still clear. “Now hop in; we need to get some school supplies.”

As I walked towards the back, getting into the car, there was a smile on my face as I tried to banish my panic about changing the future from my head. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all…

"Cute shirt, by the way."

My face fell into a deadpan. Or maybe this trip would suck.

Still, as Yomikawa drove off, the two obviously close friends bantering in the front and me joining in on occasion, the thought of me maybe changing the future lingered at the back of my mind, swirling around like a dark cloud, joining the festering thoughts about my old life. If I’d known at the time how badly they’d been affecting me, I would have confronted them far sooner, rather than when I did. But then again, hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?


	6. Chapter 6

“Here we are,” Yomikawa said, smirking as the car pulled up into a parking spot. Once we'd braked, she put her arm around the side of the seat and looked back at me with a smirk. “The Underground Shopping Center.”

I blinked. “Underground Shopping Center?" I said, putting my hand on my chin.

"Yep," Yomikawa said, turning back and unbuckling her seatbelt, "one of District 7's most famed attractions. You know about it, right?"

"I can't say-" I started, reaching down towards my own seatbelt, when suddenly I froze. My eyes widened as a veritable flood of information came pouring into my brain, informing me about the 7th District's Underground Shopping Mall and all sorts of spurious information regarding it. Shaking my head to catch myself out of my slight trance, I continued. "T-that is to say, I can't say I don't know much about it," I said, trying to catch myself from slipping. "It's one of those underground areas that's been used as an experimental area to test against earthquakes, right?"

"Mhm," Yomikawa said. "And it's mainly used as a huge shopping center." She pulled out the keys, opened the door, and stepped out into the car park.

"That's right," I said, smiling, then reached down towards my seatbelt and actually unbuckled it. I opened the car door, rotating to get out.

"For a second there, though, I thought you didn't know about it. Kinda crazy of me, huh?" Yomikawa laughed. "Everyone knows about the Underground Shopping Centers, after all."

My eyes widened a fraction, and I pasted a smile onto my face. "Ah, yeah, t-that's a little crazy, haha!" I held a hand behind my head.

Thank goodness for that odd surge of knowledge. Still, I had to wonder, what was it? Was it just some forgotten memories that had had a resurgence? No, it couldn't be that.

Maybe it was Testament?

That was probably the most likely option. Still, there was no use thinking about it aside from the fact that it was probably a lucky break. Standing up, I looked down at my feet; I was still wearing the shoes and socks that came with the Tokiwadai uniform. They were thankfully pretty comfortable, so I didn't need to change them.

"Now then," Yomikawa said, "before we go, I've got to deal with a certain lazy scientist." That said, she started stalking around the side of the car, before reaching Yoshikawa's door and wrenching it open. "Out, Kikyou!"

"Aiho, what's this about-"

"You know how dangerous it is to stay in a car in the summer!" Yomikawa said, scowling and crossing her arms. "I'm not going to leave the air conditioning on for you, you know; I don't want the car to run out of battery."

"But it's not summer yet," retorted Yoshikawa. I could almost see the smug smile on her face.

"That's a formality and you know it! It's the 24th of May, which means it's summer in just over a week, and it's already been rather hot this year; some weather experts are saying it's going to be the hottest summer in the past decade!"

I sighed, shaking my head. Didn't look like they were gonna stop any time soon. Turning around, I looked around the carpark. It was enclosed, with several teenagers walking around the paths nearby and chatting with one another.

A sign caught my eye a couple of seconds later, and I looked up at it. It read, in Japanese, 'Underground Shopping Center,' and underneath it there was an entrance to an underground subway station-type area.

"So this is it, huh?" I muttered. It didn't look like much, to be honest. But then again, there must have been a reason for all those kids to be here.

My face turned deadpan.

Those kids who were now older - and probably taller - than me.

"It doesn't look like much from out here, does it?"

I looked over at Yoshikawa, who was standing next to Yomikawa with a smile on her face. The two of them were standing to the left of me, on the same side of the car.

"But really, it's far more impressive when you get inside. It could give Shinjuku's Underground Shopping Center a run for its money. It has everything: school supply stores, clothing boutiques, bookstores… the Internet Cafés in there outstrip the greatest in the rest of the world."

"Of course you'd say that, considering how often you spent your time in them when you were younger; you're probably planning on going into them even now, aren't you?" Yomikawa said.

"Well, it's your fault for dragging me along when I could have waited at your place," Yoshikawa shot back.

They really were close, weren't they? I smiled, before looking back at the entrance, hands behind my head.

"Anyway, Minami," Yomikawa spoke, looking at me. "Regardless of what Miss Lazybones here is doing, we're going to be getting you your textbooks, writing utensils, notebooks, a laptop, and a mobile phone - we're using a Student Resources card for this, so don't worry about it putting a dent into much of my funding."

"A Student Resources card?" I echoed. Information started to fill my mind like earlier - Student Resources cards were used to give students with particularly strong or useful abilities essentially free reign when it came to money - at least, for the purpose of purchasing resources needed for school. After that, the cards were usually returned to the city, except in a few rare cases (of which I was willing to bet the 7 Level 5s were among).

Yomikawa nodded. "Yep; I'm kind of surprised too that we could get access to one. Besides, even if we couldn't, I wouldn't have minded purchasing this stuff for you. After all, well, Kikyou told me what happened."

My head whipped around to face her.

Yomikawa's face had turned uncharacteristically solemn. "She let me know why you don't have much of anything, not even clothes, aside from your ability…" She trailed off. After a few seconds, she spoke up again. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

There was a pang of sadness in my heart. I had no doubt Yomikawa didn't know the actual story - not even the part about the Sisters. Chances were Yoshikawa had fed her some sort of sob story. Still, hearing someone actually say sorry…

"It's fine," I said, trying not to think about it. I could feel tears start to well up in my eyes, and clenched a hand into a fist at my side. "Just… please don't talk about it."

Then I once again locked those thoughts away. Now wasn't the time for that.

Yomikawa was silent for a few seconds, then sighed. "...alright, I can understand that." There was a sad look on her face. "Just know that if you wanna talk, I'll be there, okay?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice

"Alright, then," Yomikawa said. She took a deep breath, then smiled, bright like the sun. "Now, let's put this doom and gloom behind us," and get to shopping!"

Despite myself, I cracked a smile.

"And as for you, don't think you're getting out of this that easily!" Yomikawa had turned on Yoshikawa and had her hands on her hips now.

"What's that even supposed to mean, Aiho?" Yoshikawa asked, a tired not to her voice.

"After we've finished shopping, you're going to treat me to a nice early dinner! So don't you dare get all cozy in that internet café!"

I started giggling.

"But my job-"

"Forget your job, Kikyou; we're gonna have dinner together no matter what!"

My giggling turned into full-blown laughter.

\----

My mood had managed to remain high throughout most of the shopping trip. Yoshikawa had (unsurprisingly) abandoned Yomikawa and I at the first internet café we'd passed, but not before Yomikawa had extracted a promise out of her to go eat dinner together.

With regards to the matter at hand, though, I was finally starting to get a little flustered.

"What's wrong, Minami?" Yomikawa asked, looking over at me. She leaned on the trolley that was packed with school supplies and the like from several different stores - even a laptop and a mobile phone, though still in their packaging, lay in there. "Don't you wanna get underwear that can last you a week at least?"

My face felt like it was about to catch fire. "I-I mean, yes, but you don't have to be so candid about it!" I muttered, staring at the clothing section of the store - or to be more specific, the underwear section of the department store we'd found ourselves in. I felt kind of out of place here, even though I knew I wasn't, and the candid discussion about buying underwear with Yomikawa wasn't helping at all.

"What's so embarrassing about underwear?" Yomikawa said, scoffing. "Everyone wears it, after all."

"Well, I mean, that's true, but that doesn't mean it's not embarrassing," I hissed, crossing my arms and hunching over. "So we should just get some underwear and get this over with, okay?"

"Ah, if it's really that embarrassing to you, then fine," Yomikawa declared. "I'll just pick out some panties for you myself, and you can wait here." Suddenly, her mouth formed an O, and she hit one hand into the palm of the other. "Or you can go and get some other clothes for yourself!"

Blinking, my face cooled down as I thought about it for a second. I straightened. "...huh, that's probably a good idea," I admitted. "Just, please don't get anything super risque or anything like that; I'm not that kind of girl."

"Got it," Yomikawa said with a nod, and I almost breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. "Now get going; those clothes ain't gonna buy themselves."

I smiled. "Alright, then." Turning around, I let my arms fall to my sides and started to walk.

Now I was on my own, free to go wherever I wanted - and wow, that felt kind of weird after either having to follow someone else or being trapped in a bed since I woke up in this world. I glanced over at the girl's clothes section, pausing. There were some simple shirts and blouses that looked nice, and, well, one or two Gekota shirts that I couldn't help but look at, despite how embarrassing it was that me, a grown woman, would like such a thing.

I mean, Gekota was absolutely adorable to be fair, even disregarding the show, which despite being rather immature was actually a rather good show.

...I know it's for kids. Shut up.

ANYWAY, I walked up towards the clothes and started browsing through the racks. Picking out a few simple shirts and blouses, I held them up to my body. After a few minutes, I ended up taking a couple pink, white, and blue blouses, a few shirts including a plain white one, and one Gekota shirt.

As for bottoms, I took a few longer skirts (all of which were grey or black) and a couple dark or denim shorts.

Of course, considering just how many clothes that is, I ended up looking like some sort of washing line, if a washing line was a girl.

"Well, I guess hindsight is 20/20, huh?" I said, a wry smirk on my face, inwardly cursing out my irrational decision to pick up tons of clothes like it were nothing. If this were an anime, my eyes would probably be blank slates of brown right now. But I digress.

Walking forward as I tried not to let any of the ridiculous clothing piles unbalance me (difficult, since even though my body was fit, it was still the body of a 12-year old girl's), I sighed, and plodded towards the changing rooms.

Once there, I pulled open the curtain that was used as a door fully (it was already halfway open), sidled in, and pulled it closed behind me.

The clothes were swiftly deposited on the hangers, and once I'd done so I sighed in relief. "Maybe next time you don't take so many clothes, you idiot," I grumbled.

If only I could do something like use telekinesis on the coathangers so I could drag them along with me without having to actually carry them…

I blinked. Wait. I probably could do something like that now. It depended what material they were made of, but they probably had at least some trace metals in them I could magnetize with my new Electromaster abilities.

Speaking of which, now that I was alone, I could practice using my ability.

Holding up a hand, I made electricity dance over my hand, the crackling and buzzing sounds like music to my ears. It wasn't much - barely 250 milliamps, and like 50 volts. Still, according to Testament, this was more than enough to put a normal human down for the count - not kill them, but at least knock them out.

I knew that I could send it out in the form of a spear, too - one moving at the speed of light, able to shock someone without them even noticing. And I had a lot more power in reserve.

And I was only a Level 3.

Suddenly, I had a lot more respect for Mikoto Misaka.

Shaking my head, I dismissed the electricity. Now wasn't the time; even if it was fun, amazing, and absolutely wonderful to be able to knock someone out with a touch, I could practice some other time. Now, I was going to get changed.

I looked through the bottoms, considering which one I wanted to try first. Finally, I picked out a pair of dark brown shorts. Pulling it off its coathanger, I set it down on the ground and started to pull down my pants.

When they were about halfway down, I heard the curtain pull open, seeing it open fully from the corner of my eye, and froze.

With frenzied speed, I pulled up my pants before turning to face the person who had opened the curtain - who had also not closed the curtain at this point.

That lent to my anger when I glared at the boy who had done it - the oddly familiar boy, who was holding a couple of shirts. "Don't you know it's polite to ask if it's occupied before using a changing room?" I asked, my eye twitching.

The boy hurriedly closed it. "S-sorry!" he stammered.

My anger faded. I took a breath, and sighed. "It's no problem. It was an accident, after all. Just make sure to ask next time, okay?"

"Okay, okay… damn rotten luck," I heard him grumble. I heard the curtain of the next door open, before closing a few seconds later.

However, that didn't make me feel any better. Instead of actually changing, I was now thinking about the very familiar obviously hair-gelled boy, and his awfully familiar catchphrase.

That, plus the accidental choice of changing booth, pointed to one thing: that boy was Kamijou Touma.


	7. Chapter 7

I could barely think about how the clothes looked on me as I changed into them. Instead, all that occupied my mind was Touma.

Not in the way that Touma was particularly good-looking or something (I mean, he was definitely above average, but now isn't the time to be talking about that); no, instead it was in the way that was like 'oh god if he touches me I might be erased from existence.'

I tried taking a few calming breaths and focusing on other things while I was changing. Unfortunately, calming down was kind of difficult when the guy in the next changing room over was someone who could literally annihilate me from existence.

In my panic, I ended up only taking a few items and leaving the rest behind, including the Gekota shirt (I know, shut up), a white and pink blouse, and a plain white shirt, with a couple of skirts and a pair of denim shorts.

Pulling open the curtain, I walked out, this time carrying a lot less than what I walked in with. I sent a glance towards the cubicle Touma was in, waiting a couple of seconds to see if anything was going to go wrong.

After a couple of seconds I sighed in relief, and walked past the cubicle, planning on going towards where Yomikawa had been buying underwear.

That was when I heard a boy shout something about his horrible luck, then a thumping sound from behind me - like someone had fallen onto the ground.

I whipped around.

Touma had fallen face-down on the ground. 

Dropping the clothes I had on the floor instantly, I dashed forward, before kneeling on the ground. I pushed him over, trying to be as gentle as I could.

His eyes, which were closed, opened, although his eyelids were droopy and his face looked a little dopey.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, trying to keep panic from leaping into my voice.

Why was I doing this? I didn't know the first thing about dealing with stuff like this. I wasn't some sort of doctor or anything.

"I'm alright, little girls; why are you talking at the same time though? It's creeping this Kamijou out," the boy said, slurring his voice slightly.

My eyes widened. "Fuck," I cursed at a mutter. I looked Touma in the eyes. "Let me help you up," I said.

"No, no, I'm fine; my rotten luck has just played up again," Touma said. The slurring had gotten worse. He tried pushing himself up, but stopped after a couple of seconds.

I considered again asking him if he'd let me help him up, but dismissed that option; if he refused help once, chances are he'd refuse it again, and I had no idea how to deal with this sort of thing. Besides, I was also like a full foot shorter than him, so I probably had no chance of picking him up.

There was someone here who likely had at least some training on how to deal with concussions, though: Yomikawa.

"Actually, wait there! I'll be right back," I said, before turning and running.

It took me less than a minute to reach where Yomikawa was and I felt surprisingly fresh for having run that far. At that moment, she was browsing through some simply-coloured underwear. There were a few sets in the shopping trolley already.

"Yomikawa!" I shouted, and she stiffened, her hands going to her side before she turned towards me.

"What is it, Minami?" she asked.

"There's someone who has a concussion over in the changing rooms!"

Yomikawa's eyes widened, then her face turned serious. "Okay, Minami. Show me."

I nodded, and took off, followed by Yomikawa.

When I reached the changing rooms and brought her in, the attendant (who I hadn't seen earlier, but I guessed was an attendant thanks to his uniform) was just standing there staring at Touma.

"Outta the way!" Yomikawa snapped, pushing past him and approaching the dazed young man. 

The attendant walked to the side. He looked rather nervous.

She paused for a bit, and I could hear her breath hitch. "Kamijou?" she said.

"Hey Miss Yomikawa," Touma said, his voice slurring. "Why are there two of you?"

Yomikawa paused. Taking a quick look around, she pushed the clothes I'd dropped onto the floor away, and sidled up closer to Touma. What followed was a series of tests where she would ask Touma questions, followed by him answering in some way.

After enough of these tests, Yomikawa turned around, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a mobile phone, held her finger to it, and it unlocked. "Call emergency services," she said, looking at me sternly, as she pressed her phone into my hand. "He needs to get to a hospital."

I nodded, almost feeling a black pit inside my stomach. "Will he be okay?" I asked.

"He'll be fine; I know him, and he's had more than one concussion before," Yomikawa said. Her face remained stoic, however. "Now call."

"Okay," I said, fumbling with the phone. My fingers shook as I pressed the phone app button. I pressed the number pad option, then froze.

I had forgotten the Japanese emergency services number.

No, this couldn't be happening; I needed to know it now-

119.

My eyes widened. That was it!

My fingers flew over the touchscreen, and I pressed the call button. Holding the phone up to my ear I waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello, you've reached emergency services-" a woman's voice rang out.

"I need an ambulance!" I blurted out.

"Alright, miss; I'm patching you over to a hospital," the woman said, her voice calm.

The phone buzzed slightly and then someone spoke - a younger man. "Hello, could you tell us where you are so we can send a medical team, what phone number you're calling from, and tell us any information you can about any injuries or emergency circumstances?" he said.

I rattled off the location, before looking over at Touma. "Uhh, there's someone who has a concussion here; I don't know how severe it is but he's seeing double and he, uh, his words are slurring- his voice, I mean. There's someone with him - she knows basic first aid, I think? This isn't my phone though; it's hers, and I don't know the number."

He was silent for a couple of seconds. Then he spoke again. "Okay, miss, please pass the phone to the person doing first aid for now."

"O-okay," I said, my voice soft.

I handed it over to Yomikawa, who had been tending to Touma and making sure he was comfortable, right now holding him in a comfortable position. She took it without preamble.

What followed was a short discussion where Yomikawa confirmed her skill at first aid, answering questions from the person on the line. She also answered questions about Touma's condition, his age, and how many people he was, as well as her phone number.

Eventually she handed it back to me with a solemn look on her fwce, and I took it. Holding it up to my ear, I said "Hello?"

"Hey, we'll stay on the line so you can make sure to update us on any new developments. Just make sure to pay attention to the patient and the first aid provider," the man on the other side of the line said. "We'll be there in less than 5 minutes."

After that, there was silence.

I held the phone up to my ear for a few more seconds, then let it drop to my side in my hand.

"When did they say they'd get here?" Yomikawa asked.

"They'll be here in less than five minutes," I said.

Yomikawa frowned. "Minami, are you okay?

I didn't trust my voice enough, so I shook my head. I brought my hands, one still clutching Yomikawa's phone, together in front of my shorts.

Yomikawa sighed. "Hey, don't worry," she said. "It's not your fault. Accidents like this are pretty common in that boy's life - I swear, he has the worst luck known to mankind." She shook her head, chuckling. "Besides, Academy City has the greatest doctors in the world. A simple concussion won't put anyone down for long, especially not Kamijou here." She smiled.

"I couldn't do anything," I heard a voice say.

I realised it was my own when I saw Yomikawa's smile transition into a frown again. "Don't discredit yourself like that," she said. "In an unknown situation, with someone who had a concussion, you did the best thing you could think of and went and looked for me - you probably remembered how I mentioned I was a teacher and an Anti-Skill officer in the car on the trip here, right?"

I did remember her mentioning those occupations a couple of times, so I nodded. It wasn't entirely honest, but it wasn't a lie either.

"Right, and regardless of whether you guessed that me being a teacher or an officer of Anti-Skill meant that I had first aid skills, that means that you ran through the options and since you knew you weren't able to treat concussions, you went to the first person who you thought could - me." She sighed. "That's honestly better than what a lot of people would do - just stand there staring in shock, or try to help without medical training and potentially mess it all up. You're very brave."

I winced, a memory of what Heaven Canceller had said to me appearing in my head. "No, I'm not," I whispered, my fists clenching tighter. If I were brave, I would have come out about the Level Six Shift project already. If I were brave, I would have fought back and not gone with Yoshikawa.

If I were brave, I would have taken as much of the project out as I could before they took me out.

But I wasn't, and I hadn't.

Yomikawa's face twisted uncomfortably. After a couple of seconds, she sighed. "Anyway… This little incident kinda ruined the shopping trip. What do you say we finish up after this whole thing?"

"...yeah, I'd kinda like that," I said. My feet were starting to get a little sore, so I leaned against the wall at the end of the changing booths.

She chuckled. "You can go to an Arcade then. As for myself, I'll get that dinner out of Kikyou - it's been ages since we've caught up in person."

"But where will we keep my school supplies?" I asked, my arms falling back to my sides.

"Oh, we'll take them back to the car," Yomikawa said, almost shrugging but stopping after a second when she glanced back at Touma, who looked generally confused. "The restaurant I want to take her to is above ground, see, and there's an arcade nearby. I can probably get some money out for you for games, and get some food for you too."

My mouth dropped open. After a couple of seconds I shook my head, confused, then looked at Yomikawa out of curiosity. "...Why would you do that for me?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "...hold up. Did Kikyou not tell you?"

I was obviously out of the loop on this. "Tell me what?"

"That I'm-"

"Hey, please move out of the way!" I heard an unfamiliar voice shout.

I started. Looking over in the direction of the voice, I saw a woman in a paramedic uniform, with a few more paramedics with her holding a stretcher. "Ah, sorry," I blurted out. Moving out of the hallway, I watched as the stretcher went down it.

Yomikawa and the woman talked for a bit, before the woman took Touma off Yomikawa's hands and with the help of another paramedic put him on the stretcher.

I looked over at the attendant, who had planted himself pretty far away from the booths. He seemed to be using his flip-phone for some purpose, probably to distract himself.

I couldn't blame him.

The stretcher with Touma on it was led away, and Yomikawa came towards me, sighing in relief. "That Kamijou sure is a handful," she said. "Normally he recovers rather quickly from concussions like that. This one seemed more severe than the types he regularly gets though; he must have hit a particularly bad spot on his head. Even if he doesn't recover that fast, Academy City's doctors are the best in the world, so he should be fine regardless. So you don't need to worry about him."

"...Thank you," I said, then tacked on "for the reassurance, I mean."

"It's no problem," Yomikawa said. She smiled.

I smiled back, albeit smaller.

Then, taking a quick look around, I spotted the clothes I had chosen - still strewn about on the floor next to the dressing rooms. Holding a finger up, I looked at Yomikawa. "So, uh… mind if I go and get those clothes there?" I said, smiling awkwardly.

Yomikawa blinked, then chuckled, crossing her arms. "Sure thing. We did come here to get clothes, didn't we?"

"Alright, I'll just… go and get them." Zipping off, I hurried towards the clothes, picked them up (they were a little creased unfortunately), and walked back.

Yomikawa grinned. "Alright. Ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yeah, as soon as we pay for this," I said, gesturing towards the clothes on my back. "And the things in the trolley too."

"I mean, of course I was including that," Yomikawa said, chuckling, and we started to walk at a leisurely pace.

We were almost back at the trolley when something hit me. "Hold up; you never finished telling me what Yoshikawa didn't tell me about."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Yomikawa said, looking up to the roof and holding her chin. "From today onwards, I'm supposed to be your guardian."

"...huh?"

\----

I felt my head spin even as I stood in front of the arcade that Yomikawa had dropped me at. A garish sign above the entrance read 'PLAYLAND GAU' in blocky English letters, and two crane games stood guard at the entrance, one on each side.

After we'd purchased the clothes and gone off, Yomikawa had actually stopped at a nearby ATM, taking some money out of her account (like 2000 yen, or 20 dollars) for me, before somehow managing to get Yoshikawa out of the internet café without much fuss.

I'd protested of course - it was kind of ridiculous that someone I didn't even know that well was giving me that amount of money to spend, especially when it was actually her money - but Yomikawa had basically insisted. I'd be the first to tell you I was stubborn when it came to stuff like that. Once, I had refused the generosity of someone who'd offered to pay for my lunch because I had felt I'd imposed on them too much.

Then we'd left, carrying the bags to the car (Yoshikawa had managed to get out of this). Throughout all of this, I’d been grappling with the idea of Yomikawa being essentially my foster mother. It had still been too much to process at the time.

It still felt like that, but I was actually trying to process it this time, and as such, it felt kind of overwhelming.

I’d been standing outside the arcade for over a minute, just staring at the entrance blankly.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for a new guardian. After all, before, well, what had happened, I’d still been living with my parents.

Dark thoughts bubbled up inside my head at the reminder of my situation, but I quashed them, banishing the thoughts about my past too. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. I could deal with it later.

Still, Yomikawa’s words kept ringing through my head, regardless of the fact that I tried to put them out of it. 

‘From today onwards, I’m supposed to be your guardian.’

I sighed. Maybe I could get my mind off of it by playing some games in there.

Walking forward, I let the automatic doors open before walking in.

The first thing I did once I was inside was stare. This place looked oddly familiar - not exceedingly so, but I was sure I'd seen it somewhere before. There were a bunch of game machines - coin-operated - that had been squished together, a couple rhythm games, some crane games and even a few punching games. I could see people at the machines, some focusing hard, some just playing casually. At the prize counter there was a girl, maybe 17, standing there looking surprisingly perky for a retail job.

Approaching the counter, I walked away less than a minute later with a wince on my face, but a small bag of arcade tokens. The cashier was maybe a bit too energetic, to be honest. She'd been all over the place with her childlike mentality.

Shaking my head, I looked around for a machine I could play. There were a lot of fighting games, which while I liked them, I wasn't exactly good at them. There were a few platformers, too. There was one Flappy Bird machine which I very much ignored, almost making me question what year this was.

Finally I stumbled across a machine that I liked the look of - a Touhou one. Touhou 12, to be exact. I hadn't played UFO myself, but I'd heard it was one of the better ones.

Taking out a coin and inserting it into the machine, I navigated through the kanji, picking Normal mode (of course; I wasn’t a lunatic) and Marisa A, and started up the game.

As the game started and went on, I was surprised how well this was going. I'd beaten the Stage 1 boss on the first try! I was on a roll, too; soon enough I reached Stage 3, though not without a few lives lost.

I was on my last life, almost having beaten the boss, when my concentration was shattered by a voice saying “Wow, you’re good.” 

My eyebrow twitched, and a stray bullet hit my character, who shattered into tiny pieces. I turned around to face the person who spoke - a young woman with blue eyes wearing a T-shirt with a clover design on it, a flower in her long hair and wearing a pair of longer pants. She looked oddly familiar for some reason “Please don’t interrupt me in the middle of my game,” I said. “I was just about to beat that boss.”

The girl blinked, then gave me an embarrassed smile. “Oh, sorry,” she said, chuckling. “I just haven’t even gotten up to that stage before, let alone come that close to beating the boss - at least on Normal Mode. The machine’s pretty new to this arcade, even if the game’s a little old, so I haven’t had the chance to play much. It’s cool to see someone good at the game do well, though, even a kid like you!”

I blinked, then felt some heat in my cheeks. “I’m not that good,” I mumbled. “I haven’t even beaten any of the other Touhou games-” Wait. “...Did you just call me a kid?”

The girl blinked, then an embarrassed look appeared on her face. “Ah, I’m sorry; you are a kid, right? You can’t be more than 10 or something.”

I was about to correct her and tell her I was 22, my mouth halfway through opening, but then my mouth snapped shut. After all, I wasn’t 22 anymore. Chronologically, the body I was in was less than a week old, and biologically it was 12 and 9 months, around about. I winced internally, but tried to push the thoughts about the changes far, far away. “I’m nearly 13,” I answered instead.

“...You’re older than me,” she said. “I’m turning 13 next year.”

“...You’re 12?!”

Now, for reference, this girl was tall. Real tall. Quite a bit taller than me, in fact - taller than a lot of the women I’d seen around in the underground shopping center.

“...Yeah, I’m pretty tall,” she said, smiling awkwardly. “So… Are you playing that game again?”

I was about to say yes, but then I paused. Maybe it would be better to let her play, and talk to her while she’s doing it so I could get to know her better?

“No, go ahead,” I said out loud. “You can use it.”

She beamed. “Thanks!”

I stepped out of the way, and watched as she put in a coin. Booting up the game, she navigated the controls to pick Reimu A, and started it up on normal.

As the opening cutscene played, I spoke up from beside her. “My name’s Minami, by the way - just Minami. It’s nice to meet you.”

She looked over at me and smiled. “Nice to meetcha, Minami; the name’s Saten Ruiko!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

I stared as Saten Ruiko played through the early levels of Touhou, on occasion grumbling as a shot hit her. At one point she tried to deathbomb, and actually managed it.

"Oo, that was lucky!" she said. She was already down to 2 lives on the second stage.

"Yeah, seems like it," I said. It was difficult to focus on the game, though, when I was standing next to the  _ actual Saten _ . The girl who was incredibly lucky, the girl who used the Level Upper, and most importantly, the girl who was friends with  _ Misaka Mikoto _ .

And yet, something felt a little off.

After all, if she was Mikoto's friend, wouldn't she recognize me or something? Mikoto's appearance was pretty distinct, after all.

That meant that I was early in the timeline - real early in the timeline, if I was right. And that also meant that Saten knowing me might mean she would find Misaka kind of familiar.

Then there was the whole rumour about Mikoto being cloned, and clones of her roaming the city or being used for military operations or something like that that preempted the actual Sisters being discovered by Mikoto. I probably looked different enough - well, at least younger enough - that I could pass my looks off as a coincidence to Saten, but it would probably be better to just not interact with her for as long as I could. After all, the whole situation - all the situations, actually - ended mostly well without me. Why interfere, if that was the case?

"Ah, damn it!"

I blinked, the world coming into focus before I could think any further, as Saten, who had just died to the middle of the third stage, hung her head. "That part always gets me," she grumbled, looking over at me. "I don't get how you got that on the first try, Minami."

It was at that point that I realized that if I had the chance, I couldn't  _ not _ interfere.

After all, Saten - this Saten - wasn't a main character in some anime I watched. She wasn't digitally animated by some artist or animator - she was 3-dimensional and real. She was a living breathing human being. She loved, she hated, she had dreams, ambitions, fears, weaknesses, and strengths.

I wasn't the type of person to go out of my way to help people - unless I saw someone in need of help. And my brain, helpful as it was, basically told me that Saten was someone in need of help, and by extension, so were Mikoto, Uiharu, and Kuroko.

Then there were the Sisters - my sisters, now - who as it was, were probably going to be killed in the hundreds over the next month.

I tried not to wince. Now wasn't the time to think about all of this, as much as I hated it. So I'd think about it later, and for now try and forget about it.

Yay.

I tuned back into Saten's complaining. "...I mean, come on! That barrage is just unfair," she said, a pout on her face.

I had to resist the urge to say 'just dodge lmao 4head' ironically. I didn't know Saten well enough - well, she didn't know me well enough, but you know what I mean - to say something like that.

Instead, I gave a smile. "Well… You know how you did that death bomb, right?"

"Yeah?" Saten's face was curious now.

"Why not try and practice that? You could also get the game online, too, and practice on any computer you have."

"Hmm…" Saten put her fingers on her chin. Reaching into her skirt pocket, she rifled around. After a couple of seconds, she sighed. "Ah, I don't have any arcade coins left over…"

I winced. That sucked. Thankfully, the bag of arcade tokens that I had obtained was still sitting on the machine. "That's alright; you can have some of mine," I said, pointing at it.

Saten looked me in the eyes, blinking. "...seriously?" she asked. "You'd just give me them?"

I arched an eyebrow. "Well, yeah? What's the problem with that?"

"These are actually worth real money though," she said.

I laughed. "They're barely worth anything. This is just 2000 yen, you know."

"Still, that's more than I usually spend on arcades…" Saten looked nervous now.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "You can take as much as you want."

"Really?" Saten looked at me with her mouth wide open, and I had the suspicion that if this were an anime she would have shoujo stars in her eyes.

"Yes, really." I crossed my arms. "Just… don't take all of it, alright?" Giving a half-hearted smile, I tried to keep any accusation off my face. "I do want to play some games here, after all."

Saten grinned. "Thank you," she said, her tone sincere. She turned back towards the cabinet, pulling open the bag. She reached in and took out a few tokens. She took one and slotted it into the machine, the others going into her pocket. As the game booted up again, she looked over her shoulder. "You know, you're pretty cool, Minami," she commented.

I blinked, unfolding my arms and putting them in my pockets. "What do you mean?"

"You're willing to give advice to someone you've just met, and after that just give away something with actual value," she said. She looked back at the screen that had since loaded, clacking the joystick and pressing buttons until the screen showed 'Reimu A'.

I scratched the back of my head, closing my eyes with a nervous chuckle. "Well, that's what anyone would do, right? I mean, you had no tokens left, and I had too many, so..." I declined to mention how in the past I'd almost ran into trouble because of that generosity of mine, almost spending 60 dollars on someone I had met that day, until an older friend had very much advised me against doing what I was about to do.

I was a bit gullible, to say the least.

Saten looked back at me with the screen still on the character select menu, a light frown on her face. "Well, I mean you'd think so," she said. "A lot of people aren't really like that though, at least in my experience. Still, the people who are are worth getting to know, at least a little." Her frown morphed into a contemplative expression, and she put a finger to her chin. Turning away from the arcade machine, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "...say, what's your phone number?"

I blinked, caught off guard, and took a few seconds to collect itself . "Uh, well, I don't have one yet?" I chuckled nervously, looking to the side. "I just got one today and I haven't started using it, let alone have it out of the box, so…"

Saten quirked an eyebrow. "...You just got a phone today?"

"Aha, yeah?" I smiled, feeling a bead of sweat on my brow. "I lost a lot of stuff recently."

I tried not to think about how that included my life.

Saten winced. "I'm sorry," she said.

I looked down at the floor. "It's fine," I said, trying to ignore the pangs of sadness. "Just, try not to talk about it, alright?"

Saten nodded. "Got it." She paused for a couple of seconds, looking down at her phone and back up again. "So… what school are you going to?"

I sighed. "I don't know yet," I admitted, crossing my arms and looking away. "No-one has let me know anything about what school I'm going to."

Saten looked at me, her face twisting in confusion. "Huh. That's kinda weird," she said.

"Tell me about it." I sighed. Letting my arms fall to my side I turned my head to look up at the roof.

"You know what would be lucky?" Saten said, and I could hear a hint of mischief in her voice.

I looked back at her. She had a big smile on her face.

"If you ended up going to my school," she said, almost chirping. "Then we'd be able to get to know each other easily."

I blinked, my face going flat. "...what?"

"I just have this feeling about you, you know?" Her grin was sharp. "You just feel like someone I should get to know better. It's not very scientific, I know, but these feelings haven't been wrong before." She chuckled. "The last person I felt like this was with my best friend, Uiharu." Her eyes widened for a second and her grin grew. "Ah, I've gotta introduce her to you too!"

I just stood there, my mouth opening a little. After a couple of seconds, I shook my head. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, we've just met." I did  _ not _ want to interfere with the timeline too badly.

...then again, I'd probably already changed it irreparably, what with having been adopted by Yomikawa and all.

"So?"

I blinked, drawn out of my thoughts by Saten's response. "Huh?"

"I said, so? Whether or not we met just today, that doesn't mean we can't get to know each other better, and maybe even become friends."

My eyes widened, and my arms fell to my sides. "Huh…"

"Now, then," Saten slipped her phone away into her pocket, turning towards the arcade cabinet and putting her hands on the controls before looking over her shoulder, "give me some tips with this game, will you?" She gave a grin, before looking at the screen and pushing the start button.

\----

After I don't know how long helping Saten with Touhou, giving her enough tips that somehow she managed to actually do better than I had done on any Touhou game before (not too difficult of a feat, to be fair, but still kind of annoying that someone else who I'd given advice to and was previously actually worse than me had managed to beat my record) and making discussion with her about various subjects (mostly rumours. Saten liked rumours a  _ lot _ ), I heard a familiar voice call out from the front of the arcade. "Hey, it's close to curfew, everyone! Get scrambling!"

Turning my head towards it, I tried looking over the top of the machines in the way, since the Touhou machine was pretty close to the back. Craning my neck up, then even standing on my tip toes, I tried as hard as I could to look.

Unfortunately, it seemed like I was too short to look over the arcade machines, so I crossed my arms and most emphatically did not sulk.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.

My non-sulking was interrupted when I heard Saten sigh. "Ah, and I was so close to beating the 5th stage too…" She sagged, her face falling.

"Well, at least you can do more later, right?" I said, smiling awkwardly. It wasn't like we were going to meet again, after all.

"That's true," Saten said, putting a finger to her chin. "Hey, Minami, what do you say we meet up here tomorrow, after school is finished?"

Normally, I wasn't one for meetups. But for some reason it felt like I wouldn't mind this one. 

"Sure, I guess," I said, smiling.

"Alright then; see you there!" And with that, Saten was off.

As I watched her from behind, I felt a smile grow on my face. Saten, though she was a lot like the portrayal of her, was also a lot more than that: she was a person, not some character.

My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a hand fall onto my shoulder. "So I see you're making some friends already, huh?" Yomikawa said from behind me, her voice laced with humour.

I almost jumped, my head swivelling to look back at her. She was still wearing the clothes she had on earlier, and was wearing a mischievous look on her face - the type a predator would have when preparing to pounce on its prey. 

Well, not really, but I'm horrible with metaphors, similes, and all that. Can you blame a girl for trying?

"A-ah, it's not like that, Yomikawa; she wanted help with that game, and who was I to say no?" I said, trying my best to keep an awkward smile off my face.

Yomikawa chuckled, moving her hand to my head and ruffling my hair. "Trust me, Minami, I know a budding friendship when I see one."

I felt my face start to heat up, and I crossed my arms, turning towards Yomikawa with a scowl. "H-hey, stop that." It was embarrassing as all hell - I was an  _ adult,  _ dammit!

Still, though, it felt… kind of nice. In the few days since I'd had affectionate human contact, I'd missed it a lot, to say the least - my family had always been pretty affectionate, going for hugs and cheek kisses.

My face grew blank. My family who I'd probably never see ever again.

Even as I tried to quash the horrible, awful feelings, I could feel the feeling of familiarity and comfort wash away, leaving my heart with a strange emptiness.

Yomikawa chuckled, oblivious to my inner torment. "Alright, kiddo," she said, pulling her hand off my head and putting both hands on her hips. "Let's…" She frowned, trailing off, and leaned in. "Minami, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said.

Her frown deepened, and I could see a spark of something in her eyes - I wasn't sure what it was. Then she sighed, and shook her head. "Alright, if you say so," she said, turning around before looking over her shoulder. "I've already dropped Kikyou off at her workplace by the way. She gave me some paperwork for you to look over, though - it's about the school you're going to be going to, and it has your ID in it, and all that. I got you a backpack after that, too - I realized that in all the commotion at the underground mall we kinda forgot about that. Kinda silly of us, eh?"

"Yeah," I said.

Yomikawa went quiet.

\----

The ride to my new home was pretty quiet most of the way. I was trying not to think about my old life, and Yomikawa was presumably worried for me.

At one point, though, she did speak up. "Hey, do you want McDonalds?"

From my side, where I was looking out the window, I turned to look at her, my eyes wide in confusion. "McDonalds?" I asked.

I thought this world had one of those weird alternate McDonalds equivalents - like WcDonalds or something. Though, I suppose since that was only really for copyright purposes, they might actually have real McDonalds stores here.

"Yeah. I wasn't really planning on making any dinner today, though I'd be willing to make some if you really need it."

I winced. I didn't want to bother her more than I already had. "No, McDonalds is fine."

"Alright." Yomikawa turned off onto a side road, then looked at me, a serious look on her face. "Just so you know though, this isn't gonna be that regular. You need to have a healthy diet; you're twelve and a growing girl, after all - though you do need to take those hormone supplements to help you with that." She tacked on the last bit as an afterthought.

As we drove up to the drive through at a McDonalds a minute later, Yomikawa looked at me. "What do you want?"

"Ah… could I have small chips and 6 nuggets?" I didn't want to overfill my probably tiny stomach. "Oh, and a small lemonade?"

Yomikawa nodded. Turning to the window, she wound it down with the press of the button, and talked it through with the cashier.

1200 yen, 15 minutes, and a bunch of eating and drinking later, and I felt satisfied, although kind of odd.

The McDonalds hadn't tasted like it had for me before - it had tasted just slightly different, but enough that it was noticeable. Well, most of it, that is - the lemonade had felt much stronger on the sugar than it had before.

Weird, but different people have different taste buds. After all, there was the gene that made coriander taste like soap.

The rest of the ride was mostly quiet, allowing me to ponder on all sorts of things now that I'd got my mind off of my situation. One question in particular was burning in my mind. I didn't know if I'd have any chance to ask it, though, at least until Yomikawa spoke up.

"We'll be getting to the apartment soon," she said. "It's on the 13th floor, but you shouldn't have to worry about having to strain yourself or anything - I'll take the shopping up. If you have any questions, it's probably best to ask them now before we get there."

It was at this point my mouth decided to speak before my brain did. "Are you and Yoshikawa together?"

Yomikawa blinked, glancing over at me. "Already bringing that up, huh? I'm guessing you're asking because of the way we speak to each other?"

I nodded, not trusting my treacherous voice.

She sighed. "Well, the best I can say is our relationship is complicated, to say the absolute least."

"Alright," I said, thoughts whirling through my brain.

It was quiet from then until we got into the carpark and rode the elevator up to the thirteenth floor. Getting out, Yomikawa led me through the hallways, stopping in front of an unassuming door with a keycard swipe.

"This is it," she said. Leaning down and placing the bags on the floor, she stepped forward and took out a keycard. After a couple of seconds the door opened, and she put the keycard away and picked the bags back up, leading me into the room. "It's called a 4LDK apartment, since it has 4 bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. It's pretty high-class, but I can afford it since this whole apartment complex is used as part of a research project, and the university using it as such pays some of the rent."

"Huh. So it's like a government-subsidized apartment?" I asked, stepping forward after her. The apartment did look pretty nice, to be honest - it had a nice-looking couch, a flatscreen TV, (it looked 4K, almost) and its aesthetics were all around really nice. It was clean, too - not what I had expected from Yomikawa, but oh well, we all get things wrong sometimes.

Yomikawa looked contemplative. "Kind of, if the government changed up your security systems every so often?"

"Ah, so not like a government-subsidized apartment at all?"

"Yeah, not really." Yomikawa held up a bag-carrying hand and pointed a finger to the right, where the kitchen (which had 5 rice cookers on a bench for some reason, making me think back to what Yoshikawa had said) was, followed by a hallway. "Your room's over there, by the way - past the bathroom, but on the same side." Then her gaze strayed to one of the bags. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Placing the bag on the floor, she pulled out a manila folder, holding it out to me. "This is the stuff Kikyou wanted me to give you. She said you should go and read over it the first chance you got. She also told me not to read it until you'd read it first." Yomikawa sighed. "I gave the first couple pages a check over and it looked mostly fine, though."

I took it. "Thanks, Yomikawa," I said with an awkward smile, before turning and hurrying down the hallway to the room she'd directed me to.

Sliding open the doorway, I walked in and turned the light on.

The room looked pretty comfy. It had a single bed and a small cupboard, but it was rather roomy, like a bedroom in a house rather than an apartment - nothing I wasn't unfamiliar with, but still. There was a window next to the bed, too, which was situated on the opposite side of the door.

Lying down on the bed, I almost marveled at the novelty of just how big it was - or rather, how small it was - before I sighed, looking out the window. The orange and purple skyline, dotted with skyscrapers and windmills, let me know that the sun was close to setting. It was almost dark.

Bringing my attention back to the manila folder in my hands, I pulled it open. There were a few pieces of paperwork which stated my transfer to Sakugawa Middle School, a school that I didn't recognize, and how I was to commence schooling on Wednesday, the 27th of May. There was also an unopened parcel, which presumably had my ID card in it.

I  _ really  _ didn't want to have to go through school again.

Sighing, I skimmed through the pages (silently marvelling at how easy it was for me to read Japanese), before I opened the parcel.

I took out a piece of paper, reading the words at the top, before I stopped in my tracks.

I reread it to confirm.

A dark pit churned in my stomach.

The top line read 'Misaka BEST Fabricated Background Details.'


	9. Chapter 9

My heart hammered in my chest at the words on the page. My hands shook, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I dropped the document. I heard the paper crinkle as it fell through the air and onto the bed. Inching one eye open, I saw it laying next to me, the pages that had been stapled together splayed out like a book, one loose page having fallen out.

I clenched my hands into fists and tried to slow my breathing. Up until now, I'd at least been able to pretend somewhat that I was a normal person - not some sort of experimental clone of a teenage girl, who was given a normal life by the fortune of being able to be more powerful than other clones. Other clones who were real people too, and probably deserved to exist more than I did. But the Dark Side of Academy City - because there was no way this document wasn't made by somebody belonging to it - seemed to be intent on reminding me of my status.

Still, this was probably inevitable, as much as I was loathe to admit it. My new life was intertwined with the darker elements of the city, despite its supposed disposal of me from the beginning.

I almost didn't want to read it. My instincts were screaming at me that I didn't want to know what they'd put on there.

Though knowing the background Academy City had created for me would definitely be useful. It probably had some sort of tragedy happening to me in the recent past, considering the way Yomikawa was acting towards me, and hopefully gave some reasoning as to why I looked identical to Mikoto.

There was no way I could think clearly about this when I was so stressed out, though. So I pushed the discomfort and dark thoughts into the back of my mind, instead thinking about what I could do to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, I held it in for a few seconds before letting it out with a sigh. I repeated the action a few times until my heart, already having calmed somewhat, had reached a steady rate. I took a few more seconds to breathe, then reached out again to pick up the document.

This time, it wasn't nearly as difficult to read past the first line. The first page seemed to be an information page more than anything.

I read down the page. The first section seemed to be about how I was to be referred to, considering how it was laid out. There was a small table with three rows and two columns. The left column seemed to contain the category of names.

The first row read 'Official Designation: Optimal Result (Misaka BEST),' the latter part being in Katakana. Not too much of a surprise (though honestly 'Optimal Result' was a bit weird). My eyes skimmed through the second row, which read 'Serial Number: Misaka 9984.'

I tried not to think about what the original 9984 was like, and how I stole her (very short) life from her.

Going to the next line, I saw the left column read 'Legal Name.' I looked at the right column.

I blinked, then squinted. No, that couldn't be right. I had to be misreading it or something, or the Japanese skills Testament had given me were messing up. I read over it again, just to make sure.

It was still the same.

Frowning, I looked at the top row again, then back at the bottom row. Trying to compare every aspect of the kanji in the top and bottom row, I felt my heart sink.

I wasn't seeing things.

My full legal name was apparently Misaka Minami - and I had no illusions that 'Misaka' had different kanji from Mikoto's. The kanji for 'Minami' read 'Beautiful Wave,' though. I liked that.

I shook my head, focusing on the surname - no time for admiring my own name right now. This was, to say the absolute least, not good. I'd already had reasons to avoid Misaka Mikoto, and this just compounded on them. I hoped to god that I got put into a school as far away as possible from Saten and Uiharu. Don't get me wrong, they seemed like cool people - Saten especially, given that I'd already met her - but I didn't want to meet Mikoto through them (which I probably would eventually if Saten was lucky and we went to the same school as each other, given the shared surname and similarity in appearance and how they'd grow to be friends some time, and how Saten seemed to be looking for me to be her friend), and for her to be suspicious of the sheer similarities between me and her, especially since we shared the same surname - and then she'd puzzle out the existence of Project Radio Noise - and by extension, the Level 6 Shift.

I could probably make an excuse that our similarities were sheer variance to be fair; that seemed like it would be more likely than me being her clone, especially in Academy City.

Still, there was probably a way I could manage to be friends with Saten without being introduced to Mikoto. It wasn't like making friends with her would be a particularly bad thing, after all; I mean, she was a pretty nice person. And having one friend who was like that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, right?

And actually, thinking about it, wouldn't it be good if I could let her know about the Level 6 Shift earlier than normal? I felt a smile start to form on my face. I could save all those people. I could make it so that hundreds of people - maybe over a thousand, even - could live, where before they would have died.

Just as my smile was about to widen into a full-blown giddy one, I froze and my heart plummeted. Accelerator was the one who was the focus of the Level 6 Shift. If I told Mikoto about it early, she'd probably rush in trying to stop him and either die, or not make much difference to it at all - she had barely done much to the experiment in the original timeline, after all.

But then again, this wasn't that timeline, was it?

This wasn't some book or comic, or even an anime. This was reality. There wasn't any kind of author or animator or something controlling these people's movements - they had their own lives, their own histories, and their own motivations.

So maybe, in this world, there was a way that Misaka Mikoto could beat Accelerator.

...yeah, right. I would have snorted if this wasn't as serious as it was. Accelerator was insanely powerful, and there was no way Mikoto could beat him. Almost no-one could.

Almost. But there was one person who could.

I needed to tell Kamijou Touma about the Level Six Shift experiment.

Not now, of course, but the first chance I could get. After all, despite my attempts to convince myself otherwise, I couldn't [i]not[/i] interfere when someone was being hurt in front of me. Even if the consequences for it were dire.

But still, I had to reluctantly admit that now wasn't the time to think about that or plan for the future like that. I needed to finish reading this document.

I started reading further.

The first page seemed to mostly be information about me - or rather, information about who they’d made me. My blood type, height, weight, even my birthday (the 21st of August, 2007).

There was also one on my ability.

It read ‘Level 3.’ A couple of lines below read something like this: ‘Misaka BEST is projected to be able to project and control electricity with roughly twice the amperage and voltage of an average Misaka clone as of her current level of ability, or 100000 volts and 2250 amperes. Her ability is projected to reach Level 4 within 4 months, and reach Level 5 within 8.’

“What?”

I just stared at the paper, my mind whirling.

Me being twice as powerful as the Sisters was kind of confusing. I suppose it must have been something to do with Personal Reality? As far as I understood it, the concept worked somewhat like self-delusion.

If that was the case, I knew I was good at that.

Still, the fact that they expected me to reach Level 5 by… January of next year, since right now it was May? And Level 4 by October- no, September even?

That was kind of terrifying. If I didn’t reach that level by then, I didn’t want to know what they’d do to me. I didn’t think I could do that.

Still, there was a part of me that was essentially saying that of course I’d reach Level 5 in that short amount of time, since there was nothing else I could be, clearly.

I winced, trying to squash that part of me. It was kind of embarrassing to me that something so arrogant even existed in me. Even so, it was a part of me, to be fair, which meant I did agree on some level.

That is to say, I felt pretty sure I’d be able to reach Level 4, maybe even Level 5 after that. It might have been kind of arrogant of me, but that was just a part of me that existed. But I wasn’t so sure I could reach Level 5 in less than a year. Maybe 5 years, but 8 months? That was just kind of crazy.

But once again, this really wasn’t the main point of reading this document. I sighed. Once again, I’d gone on a reading tangent that I shouldn’t have.

I needed to find my ‘background.’

I turned the page, looking at the back of the first piece of paper, and read the top line of the page.

It read '[i]Personal History.[/i]

My eyes narrowed. [i]This[/i] was what I was looking for.

I straightened out the page and started to read.

Ten or so minutes later, I put the document down on the bed, staring at the paper with a blank expression.

Well… that certainly explained why Yomikawa was reacting the way she was.

Supposedly my fabricated ‘family’ in this life - who were related to Mikoto’s family, oh, and let’s not mention the fact that I was supposed to be her [i]biological sister[/i] according to this fabricated backstory - had died in a car crash, and I’d immediately been snapped up by the Dark Side of Academy City. I’d been a Child Error who’d been given drugs to attempt to increase my Esper ability that messed up my endocrine system, and Yoshikawa had rescued me from that fate in order to deliver me to Yomikawa for safekeeping.

Then there was the fact that apparently, both my fake parents had been infertile, and as such Misuzu and Tabigake (the name was a bit easier to remember in Japanese than English) had supposedly been willing to give me to them after being surrogates. The both of them. Which meant that officially I was Mikoto’s biological sister.

I tried not to think about what they had to have done to Mikoto’s parents to make sure my cover story didn’t fall through.

Or even Mikoto herself.

Still, the story came uncomfortably close to the truth. Not the adopted part, of course, but the fact that something had happened to separate me from my parents, and had essentially forced me into being a guinea pig for amoral Academy City scientists.

It was just that instead of a year ago, it was now instead.

I sighed. It looked like I’d read the last page of the document. There probably wasn’t anything on the back of this page, but it couldn’t hurt to check.

I turned the page, looking at the back. I didn’t expect anything, to be honest, so I was kind of surprised when I found my name written in Kanji in black ink, followed by what looked like a note.

‘Minami,’ it read, ‘I’ve gone through some trouble to procure a copy of this for you to read. It should allow you to have some semblance of normality in your life, and integrate into your middle school life, as well as your home life with Aiho. Despite the fact that Aiho has knowledge of the Dark Side of Academy City, she does not have knowledge of your status as a clone of Railgun, or the cloning experiments occurring within Academy City as of yet. However, I was not the one to fabricate the majority of this history.’

I blinked. Hold up. The way this was written sounded kind of familiar. I looked down at the next paragraph.

‘My involvement only extends to your given legal name, and the final segment. The rest of this fabricated history was created by other Academy City scientists. Despite that, the majority of this information is considered classified by Academy City, with your background as a clone even further classified, with only those with S-ranked Network Terminals and those involved in the experiment able to access this information.’

I stared. “S-rank Network Terminals?” I whispered. I wasn’t totally informed on what that meant, but I knew what S generally tended to imply in Japanese ranking systems.

It meant the very top.

And from what I knew, that meant Aleister Crowley.

I really didn’t want to think about what that meant, so I turned my attention back to the note.

‘In addition, I have become involved with the project focused around you alongside the Level 6 Shift project, so as such, I will try and do the best an unkind woman like me can to help you live a normal life, to help atone for being unable to stop the city from putting you in such a situation in the first place.’

“Signed, Yoshikawa Kikyou,” I mumbled to myself. Below it was a short postscript.

'PS: your ID card is in the envelope this document was enclosed in. Also, please make sure to hide this somewhere it won't be found. I wasn't joking about this being classified.'

I wasn’t too surprised about who had written the note. After all, Yoshikawa was the one who’d essentially been the only person to help me through everything I’d gone through after I’d awoken as a clone.

I hadn’t had a chance to digest the sheer enormity of the document yet. Still, the fact that Yoshikawa was willing to get me a copy of the document was kind of relieving in a way, and the fact that she’d even gone to the lengths of getting involved with the project in order to help me have a normal life made me feel warm in my chest.

But the fact that she said she was doing this to help atone for putting me in this situation… I frowned. That didn’t sit right with me. It wasn't her fault that I'd become, or possessed, or hell, maybe even been reincarnated as Minami.

I didn't even know if it was anyone's fault.

If it was, though… I shuddered. The idea that someone had enough power to do that scared me.

Then I remembered Othinus, the Magic God, who had supposedly destroyed and recreated the world.

Needless to say, if I hadn't hastily squashed that particular train of thought I probably wouldn't have gotten much sleep that night. 

I shook my head. Making sure to follow the instructions on the note, I stowed the document behind my pillow. I picked up all the other documentation I'd taken out of the manila folder, including the envelope the document came from (which was surprisingly heavy; guess the ID card was in there after all) and put them all back in the folder.

Still, I needed to set things straight with Yoshikawa and let her know it wasn't her fault. Sometimes things just happened, and there was nothing you could do about them.

Like what happened with me, and how I lost my life, my friends, and my whole family.

The corners of my eyes felt wet, before the wetness started rolling down my cheeks.

I touched a wet area on my left cheek with a finger, pulling the finger away and looking at it. There was a wet spot.

"Oh," I said. "I'm crying."

I wasn't too surprised. This had probably been coming for the last few days. I was honestly somewhat of a crier - sometimes even a crybaby. I cried over the most ridiculous things.

So crying over being torn from my life, family, and friends? I was surprised I'd lasted this long.

I shuddered, and sobs started to wrack my body. God… what were my parents even thinking had happened to me? Had I died, to them, or was I missing without a trace?

I wanted my mummy, and my daddy, and my younger sister (as annoying and nitpicky as she could be), and my puppy, and even my plushies that I liked to lay in bed with.

I could feel the sobs wracking my body now.

God, I wanted to go home.

I closed my eyes, whimpering. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down.

Finally, after a couple of minutes like that, I felt myself start to relax. I tried keeping my mind off of the situation by any way possible - even immature methods like counting sheep.

I stayed like that for half an hour as I drifted off to sleep.

My dreams were filled with odd hugging moments and forehead kisses.


	10. Between the Lines 1

Yomikawa Aiho sat opposite Yoshikawa Kikyou at the table at the small western-themed restaurant.

Aiho toyed with the food on her plate. Staring at a particular piece of broccoli, she stabbed into it with her fork. Putting an elbow on the table, she held her head up with it.

She brought the broccoli up in front of her face, staring at it. Thoughts churned through her mind - about Minami, the somewhat quiet but brave girl, whose strong personality shone through despite her trauma. About Kikyou, the woman opposite her whose relationship with her could be best described as complicated, straddling the line between a friend and something more since they'd first met in college.

About the odd feeling she was having in her gut right now.

"Your work at Anti-Skill has put you into situations like this before though, hasn't it?" Kikyou's voice cut into her thoughts

Aiho looked back at Kikyou, putting her elbows on the table and interlocking her hands. "Yeah, with the Special Ability Institute."

The Special Ability Institute. One of the more questionable projects of Academy City, and one Anti-Skill itself had managed to shut down.

"Then surely this isn't much different to that?" Kikyou asked.

Aiho sighed.

Despite the relationship she and Kikyou had cultivated over the years, Aiho sometimes felt that Kikyou wasn't quite honest with her.

"It sure seems that way initially," she said out loud. "Still, it may be a gut feeling, but something feels off about this."

"Are you sure your stomach hasn't just gotten too used to food cooked in those appliances?"

Despite the quip, Aiho's eyes narrowed. "Kikyou. You know what I mean."

Kikyou, before having some semblance of amusement on her face, schooled it into a more serious one. "I wouldn't tell you that you're wrong to be somewhat suspicious. It's always better to think critically in matters like this." She frowned. "Still, gut feelings aren't a very good way to go about things, are they?"

Aiho popped the piece of broccoli into her mouth, chewing for a bit then swallowing. 

"Actually, gut feelings are pretty important. It may not seem like it, but our brains are constantly processing information. Gut feelings are really just our brains predicting what's probably important to do by analyzing a lot of tiny details."

Yoshikawa Kikyou frowned. "Is that so?"

"Yeah; have you ever been walking down a sidewalk, and your instincts told you that you should step around a particular spot, then when you look at it you find a tripping hazard on that spot?"

"Maybe once or twice."

Yomikawa Aiho grinned. 

"That's because of your brain. Chances are you unconsciously noticed a person in front of you avoiding that spot, or someone almost tripping before righting themselves. The brain is a pretty powerful predictive machine; it's no Tree Diagram, but it can definitely do a lot more than we give it credit for."

Kikyou arched an eyebrow. "That sounds vaguely familiar." She picked up her fork and stabbed it into a potato. "Still, I'm rather curious as to how you know about that." With that said, she put the potato into her mouth, chewing on the rather hot vegetable.

"I'm a member of Anti-Skill. The training there basically drills that information into our heads - we have to be able to enforce the law of Academy City as best we can, after all. Still, what I wanna know is why you don't know about this, or at the least don't remember it."

Aiho took her fork and jabbed it into the air, pointing it towards Kikyou.

Kikyou scowled. "I'm not some sort of omnidisciplinary scientist, you know. I'm more of an Esper expert than anything else, and I'm not one of those people with a perfect memory."

"I suppose that makes sense; you've probably forgotten more scientific concepts than I've ever learned." Aiho sighed.

Taking her knife and fork, she started cutting into the steak on her plate.

"Still, it just doesn't feel right. But I suppose I can leave the worrying for later."

The atmosphere around the table became quiet.

Soft jazz music played through the speakers of the restaurant as Yomikawa Aiho chewed on the medium rare steak.

Normally she would have been drunk by now. But of course, she had a girl to take care of now, and besides, she was driving too. It was a bad look for a member of Anti-Skill to be breaking the very laws they stood for, from Aiho's point of view.

"So," Yoshikawa Kikyou spoke up. "What do you think of her?"

Aiho looked up. "Pardon?"

"What do you think of Minami?" Kikyou picked up the cup on her side of the table filled with water and sipped from it. "Her personality, I mean."

Aiho put her hand on her chin. "Hmm… well, she has a pretty sharp tongue." She thought for a second more. "She's rather quiet, too - but if you manage to get her out of her shell she seems pretty friendly."

Kikyou moved her hands onto the table in front of her, fingers interlocking. "Anything else?"

"Well, she gets embarrassed pretty easily." Aiho chuckled. "She got embarrassed when we were buying underwear, even!"

Yoshikawa Kikyou sighed.

"Aiho, not everyone is as frank as us when it comes to stuff like that."

Aiho scoffed. "Still, it's just underwear. Most people wear it."

"Most people don't normally have to buy underwear with near-total strangers, regardless of how nice they turn out to be."

"...You make a pretty good point there." There was a nervous smile on Aiho's face now. It faded quickly, however, and gave way to a frown. "Still, I'm kind of worried about her. She's pretty clearly not the poster child for mental health."

"I thought as much," Kikyou said. "I'm not entirely clear on the details, though."

Aiho sighed. "I'm pretty sure that whenever I mention her family or do something that reminds her of them, she has to force herself to stop having a panic attack."

Kikyou's eyes narrowed. "Her family?"

"Yeah, you were there the first time she mentioned that. Don't you remember? At the entrance to the Underground Shopping Center?"

"Honestly, I was mostly focused on which internet cafe I wanted to go to." Kikyou shrugged. "Still… her family, huh?"

"That's not all, though." Aiho took a deep breath. "She really doesn't like being told she's brave, apparently."

Kikyou blinked. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Even if she's just done something that's pretty brave."

Yomikawa Aiho looked down at her plate.

"There's a boy who goes to the school I teach who has absolutely horrible luck." Aiho held a hand up. "Now before you say anything about how luck isn't a real thing or something like that, even if it's just variance, it's severely not in his favour most of the time. Now, somehow he got a rather bad concussion from a fall in a changing room aisle."

"...a changing room aisle?" Kikyou's eyebrows shot up to the top of her head.

"Yes, a changing room aisle. He somehow tripped there despite the floor being clean, with no noticeable differences."

"That's-"

"Really unlucky, yes." Aiho gave a wry grin, and stabbed another piece of steak with her fork. "Like I said, his luck is horrible. Anyway, when that happened, Minami also happened to be there." Her grin widened. "She has no phone or anything. Care to guess what she did?"

"What did she do?" Kikyou's eyes betrayed a curious light behind her stone-like expression.

"She ran to me." Taking the piece of meat she had on her fork, Aiho put it in her mouth. "She knew nothing about how to deal with concussions, and she had no phone to call anyone with, so she ran to the first person who she thought had experience and informed them about the situation. Thankfully, my Anti-Skill training as well as my medical training allowed me to be able to help Minami, and by extension my student."

Kikyou arched an eyebrow. "But isn't that just logical?"

"You'd think so, yeah. But I'm sure you've been in a situation like that before, and know how easy it is to freeze up like that."

Kikyou blinked, and her mouth formed an O. "Ah. I guess you're right, then."

"Then she called the ambulance. She didn't manage to get through the call, and had to give it to me, but the fact that she managed it is admirable. A lot of the time, people either freeze up or do nothing. Still…"

Yomikawa Aiho frowned.

"Even after doing all that, Minami's reaction when I called her brave seemed less like something born of being unable to accept a compliment, and more like something born of trauma."

"So knowing you, how do you think you can help with that?" Kikyou asked.

Aiho sighed, her frown turning resigned. "I want to help, but I'm not sure I can."

Kikyou started. "You're not sure you can?"

"Yeah. I'm no therapist, after all, and this is something that's more a therapist's speed. So the best help I probably can give is getting her to a therapist."

Aiho's resigned frown turned back into a full one.

"Still, it makes me wonder. Her problem with being reminded of her family is a bit more obvious, but with that and her feelings about being called brave, it still makes me wonder… What did Minami go through that made her feel like this?"

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first endeavor at writing for a while (and my first overall on Archive Of Our Own) so I'm hoping for some good constructive criticism! I'm hoping that you all enjoy it as well!


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